tihxaty  of  ^e  theological  ^eminarjo 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


'd^^t' 


PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of  the 
Rev.  John  B.  Wiedinger 

BV  4253  .S464  S91  1910 
Selby,  Thomas  G.  1846-1910. 
The  strenuous  gospel 


> 


THE    STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 


WORKS    BY   THE    SAME   AUTHOR 

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LONDON:  HODDER   AND   STOUGHTON 


THE 

STRENUOUS  GOSP 


MAY  25   1949 


SERMONS 


BY 


/ 


THOMAS    G.    SELBY 


Cincinnati  : 

JENNINGS    AND   GRAHAM 

New  York  :    Eaton   and   Mains 


CONTENTS 


THE   FALSE   EQUATION 


PAGE 
I 


II 


TESTED   BY   THE   INCARNATION 


26 


III 


THE  SUBLIMINAL  GODHEAD 


45 


IV 


THE  COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 


64 


vi  CONTENTS 


PAGE 
THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD  .  .  .  -7^ 


VI 


THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  .  .  .  .  95 


VII 


THE   INWARDNESS   OF   REDEMPTION  .  .  •     H? 


VIII 


THE   FREE  SACRIFICE        .....  139 


IX 

THE   REDEMPTIVE  COMPENSATION    .  .  .  .    160 


THE    STRENUOUS    GOSPEL  .  .  .  .  184 


CONTENTS  vii 


XI 

PAGE 

THE   MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION        ....    20^ 


XII 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  .  .  .  .  .225 


XIII 


ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF  .....    245, 


XIV 


THE    SALVATION   WHICH   AFFRONTS  .  .  .  265 


XV 

THE   RELIGIOUS    FORMALIST  ....    296 


XVI 


THE   COMMON   DISCIPLESHIP         ....  314 


viii  CONTENTS 


XVII 

PAGE 

ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT  .....   336 


XVIII 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  .       _        .  .  357 


XIX 


THE  ENDLESS   ETHIC.  .  .  .  '.  .   380 


XX 


THE  GIFT   WHICH   SANCTIFIES      ....  400 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION 

"  For  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  My 
ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  My  thoughts  than  your 
thoughts."— IsA,  Iv.  9. 

All  knowledge  of  Divine  things  begins  in  a  sense  of 
our  kinship  with  God.  It  is  impossible  to  gain  any 
strong,  soul-dominating  impression  of  the  Eternal 
unless  we  recognise  that  in  the  stupendous  presence 
which  fills  heaven  and  earth,  there  is  a  centre  of 
personal  consciousness,  not  unlike  that  upon  which 
the  sense  of  our  own  identity  rests,  God  thinks  His 
counsels,  chooses  His  lines  of  action,  loves,  and  also 
welcomes  the  love  which  is  offered  to  Him,  according 
to  the  self-same  scheme  upon  which  human  nature  is 
constituted,  and  its  functions  proceed.  And  yet  we 
have  not  got  far  in  our  search  for  God  before  we  feel 
the  check-rein  and  are  constrained  to  admit  that, 
whilst  there  are  points  of  contact  between  His  being 
and  ours,  there  are  also  points  of  enormous  dissimi- 
larity. We  have  worked  from  the  scale  of  the  dwarf, 
and  the  larger  mensuration  is  beyond  us.  There  is  a 
basis  for  common  fellowship  in  the  elemental  truths 
which  arise  from  these  methods  of  comparison  ;  but 

2  ' 


THE   FALSE    EQUATION 


we  must  not  make  God  according  to  a  petty,  mundane 
ground-plan  and  transfer  the  limitations  of  human 
life  and  character  to  His  incomparable  person  and 
government. 

These  words,  which  remind  us  of  the  great  gulf 
between  God's  thoughts  and  ways,  and  the  ways 
and  thoughts  of  His  frail  creature  man,  were  spoken 
with  a  twofold  purpose  :  first,  to  show  reason  why 
a  transgressing  race  should  come  back  to  God  ;  and 
secondly,  to  hearten  them,  in  the  event  of  their  return, 
with  the  prospect  of  a  forgiveness  unexampled  and 
boundless. 

The  prophet  had  just  been  speaking,  in  the  name 
of  the  Most  High,  of  the  wicked  man's  thoughts  and 
the  unrighteous  man's  ways.  The  thoughts  and  ways 
of  a  holy,  compassionate  God  move  in  diametri- 
cally opposite  pathways  to  those  of  a  transgressing, 
rebellious  people,  and  men  must  rise  into  accord  with 
the  plans  and  counsels  of  heaven,  unless  they  are  to 
frustrate  the  promise  and  annul  the  benedictions 
of  life.  If  terms  of  working  harmony  cannot  be 
arranged  between  God  and  those  whom  He  has 
called  to  be  His  people,  disaster  and  final  over- 
throw are  inevitable.  The  riot  and  license  of  sin, 
and  its  bitter  results  within  the  individual  and  the 
community,  are  signs  of  this  cleavage  between  the 
human  and  the  Divine.  All  history,  with  its  set 
towards  wrong  and  its  perpetual  confusions,  is  an 
ominous  illustration  of  man's  refusal  to  understand 
the  thoughts  of  the  Infinite,  and  of  his  stubborn 
unwillingness  to  accommodate  himself  to  its  methods. 

Unless  we  take  account  of  the  disparities,  as  well 
as  of  the  resemblances  between  ourselves  and  God, 
the  religion  we  profess  will  end  in  practical  negations. 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION 


and  the  ground  where  the  spirit  of  man  may  meet 
that  of  his  Maker  will  be  a  scene  of  defeat  and  disas- 
trous overthrow.    To  the  master-mind,  which  is  above 
all  worlds,  every  other  mind  must  give  heed.     The 
failure  to  reach  agreement  means  an  unequal  con- 
troversy sure  to  confound   and  destroy   those   who 
challenge  it.     A  railway,  traversing  a  huge  continent, 
could  not  be  smoothly  worked  if  it  were  laid  down 
upon  different  gauges  and  mapped  out  according  to 
the  plans  in  favour  amongst  incongruous  populations. 
Such   a  clash   of  arrangements    would    involve   the 
breaking  up   and    re-handling  of  the  freights  upon 
different  sections  of  the  line,  many  errors,  mortifying 
delays,  exasperating  cross-purposes.     It  would  not  do 
to  staff  a  Cape  to  Cairo  railway  with  men  of  promis- 
cuous nationalities, — British  drivers,  German  guards, 
American  signalmen,   Russian  stationmasters,  Japa- 
nese booking-clerks, — all  so  patriotic,  too,  that  they 
insist  upon  the  times,  metric  systems,  the  telegraphic 
gestures  of  the  respective  countries  from  which  they 
come.     Bugles,  bells,  whistles,  flags  are  used  without 
mutual  agreement  and  understanding.     Some  clocks 
are  set  to  Greenwich  time,  others  to  that  of  Tokio, 
Washington,  or  Berlin.    From  such  rigid  and  obstinate 
narrowness    would    ensue    chaos,   disaster,    carnage. 
Men  employed  in  enterprises  of  international  mag- 
nitude must  come  into  tune  with  each  others'  thoughts 
and  follow  common  methods,  and  they  must  do  this 
by  grasping  the  scheme  and  carrying  out  the  instruc- 
tions of  one  master-mind.     Over  every  section  of  the 
line  there  must  be  a  clear  scientific  agreement,  for  all 
are  servants,  who  must  sink  their  partialities  and  bow 
to  the  one  controlling  brain  of  the  system.     And  if 
we  would  escape  pain,  confusion,  spiritual  overthrow, 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION 


the  gauge  of  our  thoughts  and  ways  must  be  made  to 
agree  with  the  magnitude  of  God's  counsels,  as  far  at 
least  as  we — dwarfs  that  we  are — can  grasp  them. 
He  claims  to  guide  because  His  reason  is  higher  than 
ours,  and  His  principles  of  action  are  immeasurably 
nobler.  He  requires  our  acquiescence  since  the  reali- 
ties of  the  infinite  wisdom  and  holiness  transcend  the 
best  of  earth's  poor,  dim,  faltering  types.  We  must 
forsake  our  own  judgments  and  stand  by  His,  for  His 
methods  are  incontestably  best.  The  working  out  of 
God's  thoughts  and  ways  refines  the  earth  into  a 
similitude  of  heaven,  whilst  the  substitution  of  our 
thoughts  and  ways  for  His  tends  to  produce  hell 
with  all  its  darkness  and  degradation. 

But  these  words  minister  encouragement  as  well  as 
press  home  a  strong  motive  for  the  soul's  swift  return 
to  God.  They  confirm  and  echo  from  heights,  into 
which  we  cannot  soar,  a  promise  of  unstinted  forgive- 
ness, which  human  nature  is  too  slow  to  receive. 
With  a  magnanimity  to  which  there  can  be  no  earthly 
parallel,  God  forgets  the  dishonour  we  have  done  to 
His  name.  We  must  not  judge  the  grace  which 
comes  from  above  by  human  examples  and  test  by 
earthly  standards  the  assurances  with  which  He 
meets  us.  The  societies  in  which  we  live,  and  their 
petty  scales  of  the  possible,  have  no  right  place  in 
any  method  of  computing  spiritual  values. 

A  daring  metaphor  is  used  to  enforce  these  views 
of  God  and  His  economies.  The  inspired  poets  of 
Israel  compare  the  Divine  righteousness  to  the  great 
mountains,  and  the  Divine  judgments  to  the  mighty 
deep.  Isaiah  leaves  the  picturesque  imagery  of  earth 
behind,  for  the  highest  peak  may  be  climbed  and  the 
broadest  stretch  of  ocean  crossed,  and  perhaps,  in 


THE   FALSE   EQUATION 


due  time,  plumbed.  But  even  in  modern  times  the 
study  of  the  heavens  has  sighted  no  final  goal.  And 
we  can  never  overtake  the  interval  between  God's 
thought  and  man's.  It  is  like  the  incalculable  vista 
of  space,  which  expands  itself  in  belts  of  endless 
azure,  between  the  valleys  of  earth  and  the  last  out- 
post star  of  the  invisible  firmament.  We  cannot 
ascend  to  God's  thoughts  and  ways.  Both  now  and 
through  endless  years  they  will  assert  their  illimitable 
supremacy  over  ours. 

The  counsels  of  the  Most  High  are  differentiated 
from  those  of  man  by  the  vastness  of  the  mind  which 
conceives  them  ;  by  the  character  which  determines 
the  subjects  with  which  they  deal  ;  and  also  by  the 
conditions  under  which  an  all-ruling  and  infinite 
intelligence  moves  and  acts. 

Thoughts  derive  many  of  their  qualities  from  the 
inherent  attributes  of  the  mind  within  which  they  are 
produced.  Lofty  ideas  caimot  be  got  out  of  stunted 
little  natures  any  more  than  nuggets  of  gold  can  be 
picked  up  out  of  slum  dust-bins.  Wide  inequalities 
exist  between  the  minds  of  different  races,  as  well  as 
between  the  individuals  belonging  to  those  races. 
The  minds  of  some  of  our  own  countrymen  are  as 
rich  in  ideas  as  the  British  Museum  or  the  Bodleian 
Libraries,  whilst  the  ideas  of  others  might  be  put 
into  a  thumb-diary,  and  leave  blank  pages  to  spare. 
In  the  public  schools  there  are  children  whose  brains 
can  absorb  every  kind  of  knowledge,  and  other 
children  whose  brains  soon  reach  saturation-point. 
Through  all  grades  of  society  minds  vary  in  strength, 
alertness,  range  of  apprehension,  grooves  of  chosen 
pursuit  and  movement.  The  thoughts  of  men  living 
together  under  the   same  civilisations  are  stamped 


THE   FALSE   EQUATION 


with  values  varying  as  much  from  each  other  as  coins 
issued  from  the  mints  at  London  and  Peking  vary  in 
ingredients  and  in  purchasing  power.  The  Indian 
canoe-builder  of  the  Far  West  and  the  Constructor 
of  the  British  Navy,  if  brought  together  into  the  same 
room,  would  have  few  ideas  in  common.  Their  ex- 
periences run  in  different  planes,  and  their  capacities 
do  not  belong  to  the  same  spheres  of  craftsmanship. 
If  the  illiterate  native  from  the  Congo,  who  counts 
the  tale  of  his  mutilated  or  murdered  friends  in 
tied-up  bundles  of  sticks,  could  be  presented  to  the 
Astronomer  Royal,  he  would  not  comprehend  the 
arithmetic  of  the  great  man  or  credit  its  results. 
There  is  scarcely  any  point  of  artistic  contact  between 
the  Polynesian  tatooist  and  Alma  Tadema.  The 
ideas  of  such  extreme  representatives  could  scarcely 
be  incorporated  into  one  and  the  same  school  of 
colourists. 

These  disparities,  which  almost  let  man  down  to 
the  level  of  the  brute  on  the  one  hand,  and  raise  him 
into  near  kinship  with  the  seraph  on  the  other,  are 
nothing,  and  less  than  nothing,  when  placed  side  by 
side  with  the  stupendous  inequalities  of  which  the 
prophet  speaks.  Whilst  spiritual  religion  is  im- 
possible unless  we  think  of  God  as  a  person,  we 
must  not  forget  how  much  is  involved  in  the  contrast 
between  the  human  and  the  Divine.  If  all  finite 
personalities  could  be  graded  into  a  series,  the  dis- 
tance between  the  lowest  and  the  highest  extremes 
of  the  scale  would  not  carry  us  far  in  computing  this 
amazing  interval.  He  is  higher  than  the  highest. 
His  is  the  mighty,  incomprehensible  mind  out  of 
which  all  worlds  with  their  wonderful  adjustments 
and   adaptations  have  come.     His  understanding  is 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION 


boundless.  He  knows  without  effort,  discipline  or 
experiment.  More  freely  than  an  infant  breathes, 
He  thinks  His  thoughts  of  transcendent  insight  and 
splendour  ;  and  His  thoughts  are  fiats.  To  think,  in 
the  moment  it  takes  to  pronounce  His  name,  the 
thoughts  which  possess  God's  mind,  would  use  up 
the  vitality  of  a  lifetime.  Within  the  hidden  recesses 
of  His  being  all  truths  lie  illuminated  as  in  the  light 
of  a  myriad  of  suns.  Do  not  be  discouraged  because 
you  cannot  understand  Him  at  a  bound.  By  your 
tiny  table  of  systems  and  diagrams  do  not  presume 
to  set  forth  the  measurements  of  His  thoughts  and 
ways.  His  path  is  in  the  great  waters,  and  His  foot- 
steps are  not  known. 

The  contrast  between  God's  thought  and  man's 
is  intensified  when  we  remember  that  it  means  the 
difference  between  thoughts  issuing  from  a  mind  of 
eternal  perfection,  and  thoughts  produced  within 
minds  of  immature  growth  and  undisciplined  crude- 
ness.  The  rarest  wisdom  of  earth  is  only  in  stages 
of  incipient  germination,  and  needs  to  be  described 
not  so  much  as  an  attainment,  but  as  a  release  from  a 
series  of  limitations.  The  man  into  whom  the  least 
gleam  of  self-knowledge  has  entered  is  appalled  to 
find  that  right  up  to  yesterday  his  grasp  was  infantile, 
and  the  time  is  still  far  off  when  he  shall  have  put 
away,  once  and  for  all,  the  childish  things  which 
have  occupied  him.  We  blush  as  we  look  back  upon 
recent  stages  of  intellectual  development  through 
which  we  have  been  passing.  The  only  proof  of 
progress  we  can  see  is  that  we  are  still  busy  shedding 
the  imprisoning  moulds  of  yesterday.  It  would  pain 
us  to  think  we  should  be  judged  by  the  notions  we 
flung  upon  the  world  in  a  spasm  of  adolescent  egotism 


THE   FALSE   EQUATION 


which  is  not  quite  spent.  The  first,  the  second,  and 
indeed  the  third  forms  of  expression  into  which  we 
have  put  our  ideas  about  God,  the  world  He  orders, 
and  human  life,  so  far  as  we  can  explain  it,  are  as 
obsolete  as  the  last  year's  leaves  upon  which  we 
trample.  In  the  man  who  can  pride  himself  upon 
the  intellectual  exploits  of  his  youth,  or  of  his  middle 
and  late  manhood,  there  is  a  symptom  of  brain-decay. 
A  cruel  ossification  soon  begins  to  cramp  the  mystical 
part  of  us,  like  a  stone  dungeon  narrowing  its  walls 
round  a  chained  athlete.  We  know  enough  of  our- 
selves to  be  convinced  that  our  minds  are  capable  of 
a  manifold  maturity  we  shall  find  neither  time  nor 
strength  to  reach  on  earth ;  and  if  our  thoughts  and 
ways  are  to  be  brought  into  any  worthy  comparison 
with  God's,  it  must  be  in  some  unopened  chapter  of 
our  destiny,  when  we  shall  think  under  new  conditions, 
with  finely  organised  spiritual  bodies  responsive  to 
every  enlargement  of  the  mind.  Our  successors  will 
outstrip  us,  as  we  outstrip  the  patriarchs,  for  man  has 
by  no  means  attained  the  knowledge  and  intellectual 
perfection  of  which  he  is  capable.  There  is  no  apparent 
promise  of  finality  in  the  thoughts  and  ways  of  brief- 
lived  mortals.  Our  faculties  are  in  a  state  of  transition 
to  which  no  term  can  be  put  ;  and  the  thoughts  they 
originate  cannot  rank  in  value  or  in  splendid  breadth 
with  the  counsels  of  an  understanding  which  never 
had  to  find  for  itself  an  equilibrium  of  stable  perfec- 
tion, an  understanding  which  unites  the  freshness  and 
flexibility  of  youth  with  the  fulness  and  finality  which 
long  aeons  can  alone  bring  to  finite  intelligence. 

Does  it  seem  vague  and  unmeaning  to  contrast 
a  slowly  developed  with  an  uncreated  intelligence 
and  to  infer  enormous  differences  in  the  thoughts  and 


THE    FALSE   EQUATION 


lines  of  conduct  they  are  qualified  to  yield?  Let 
us  picture  to  ourselves  a  being  lower  than  God,  but 
greater  than  the  greatest  intellect  the  human  race  has 
yet  evolved,  a  firstborn  son  of  light  who  has  been 
treasuring  knowledge  from  the  dawn  of  Creation,  and 
has  acquired  corresponding  capacities  to  assimilate 
it.  He  has  watched  the  growth  of  art,  science,  letters, 
civilisations,  and  has  also  deciphered  the  secrets  of 
every  natural  law.  In  many  schools  has  he  culled 
rare  wisdom,  entering  into  the  heritage  of  every 
epoch  making  discovery.  Through  periods  which 
bewilder  the  imagination  his  reason  has  got  a  swift 
and  unerring  mastery  of  the  problems  which  chal- 
lenge it.  He  has  been  alive  to  all  the  currents 
coursing  through  the  varied  circles  of  finite  con- 
sciousness. Any  comparison  between  the  thoughts 
of  such  a  being  and  the  greatest  genius  of  the  historic 
centuries  would  be  impossible.  The  huge  differentia- 
tion which  has  arisen  is  scarcely  conceivable.  But 
the  firstborn  son  of  light  is  a  superior  dwarf  before 
the  Eternal  God  who  has  anticipated  the  experience 
of  the  longest  lived  and  the  wisest  of  His  creatures. 
When  the  first  seraph  broke  into  song  and  heralded 
the  day-dawn  of  the  awakening  worlds  His  under- 
standing was  already  perfect.  Is  it  not  rash  to 
assume  any  kind  of  parity  between  the  thoughts 
of  such  a  mind  and  our  own  ?  The  thoughts  filling 
the  mind  of  Gabriel  and  the  thoughts  of  the  Most 
High  are  separated  by  an  unexplored  interval,  vaster 
than  that  between  the  princeliest  angel  and  our 
own?  Into  the  deeper  mysteries  of  redemption 
angels  long  desired  to  look.  Can  we  think  God's 
thoughts  in  their  unknown  vastness  ?  As  well 
expect   Tubal    Cain's    rude    forge    with    its    feeble 


lo  THE   FALSE   EQUATION 

bellows  of  goatskin  to  send  out  steel-plates  and 
girders  to  bridge  the  Victoria  Falls.  The  products 
are  as  incommensurable  as  the  respective  capacities 
from  which  they  arise. 

Thought,  and  the  action  to  which  it  leads,  is 
dependent  upon  character  and  the  animating  motives 
it  supplies.  The  disparities  between  the  perfect 
character  of  God  and  the  frail,  blemished  characters 
of  the  children  of  men  must  tend  to  widen  the  gulf 
between  His  ends,  and  the  methods  by  which  He 
seeks  them,  and  ours.  Opposite  moral  habits  tend 
to  cause  sharper  dissimilarities  of  view  than  com- 
monly arise  from  the  most  marked  intellectual 
separations.  Men  of  diverse  intellectual  endow- 
ments may  be  attuned  and  confederated  if  their 
ethical  instincts  are  akin. 

An  understanding  naturally  agile  and  robust  is, 
now  and  again,  combined  with  a  deficiency  in  the 
power  of  entertaining  those  impulses  which  deter- 
mine right  conduct.  High  intellectual  endowment 
associated  with  grave  moral  weakness  suggests  the 
picture  of  a  many-storied  mill,  furnished  with  costly 
modern  machinery,  but  built  over  a  fickle,  oft- 
disappearing  runlet  in  a  desert.  The  splendid  plant 
lacks  adequate  driving-power,  and  the  output  of 
work  is  regulated  not  by  the  polished,  modernised 
machinery,  but  by  the  stinted  dynamic  of  the 
treacherous  burn.  A  brain  may  be  finely  organised, 
rich  in  ability  to  deal  with  great  problems,  and  the 
capacity  to  achieve  magnificent  effects  may  be 
proudly  flaunted  ;  but  the  principles  which  energise 
uncommon  faculties  into  fruitful  exercise  are  want- 
ing and  no  commensurate  results  are  forthcoming. 
Through  a  life  of  huge  potentialities  sparse  moral 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION  ii 

forces  crawl  in  languid  dribblets,  and  the  man  favoured 
by  Nature  is  debilitated  by  a  shallow  character.  He 
does  not  abound  in  ideas  or  attain  results  worthy 
of  the  capacities  he  has  received.  It  is,  of  course, 
true  that  a  bad  man  may  sometimes  live,  for  a  time, 
a  full  intellectual  life  and  show  prolific  brain  power. 
In  the  history  of  French  literature  we  are  told  of 
one  who  was  no  mean  poet,  and  at  the  same  time 
practised  the  profession  of  a  highwayman.  Work- 
manship with  a  halo  of  rare  genius  about  it  may 
come  from  a  coarse,  dissolute  soul,  but  such  achieve- 
ments are  exotic,  and  the  phenomenon  is  fleeting. 
When  the  thinker  of  vicious  habits  forgets  his  moral 
disease,  and  for  the  moment  transports  his  faculties 
into  a  realm  of  sacred  dreams,  the  innate  defect  of 
character  still  asserts  its  crippling  power  over  the 
thoughts.  His  praise  of  goodness  is  bated  and 
perfunctory.  The  faint  aside  of  unconscious  mockery 
appears.  There  is  a  note  of  constraint  in  the  eulogy 
of  the  things  which  are  lovely  and  of  good  report. 
A  brief,  diverting  picnic  has  been  held  in  the  realm 
of  ideal  purity,  and  the  mind  is  not  quite  at  home  in 
such  a  clean,  holy  world,  and  soon  finds  the  atmo- 
sphere ungenial.  Given  men  of  equal  capacity  but  of 
divergent  characters,  the  bad  man's  thoughts  will 
seek  out  meaner  and  swampier  channels  than  the 
good  man's.  The  personalities  strike  root  in  different 
subsoils,  and  the  ideas  to  which  they  give  rise  lack 
common  affinities  and  resemblances. 

The  ideas  of  James  Chalmers,  the  apostle  of  New 
Guinea,  and  of  thd  cannibals  who  clubbed  and  ate 
him,  were  not  made  of  the  same  stuff.  General 
Gordon  and  the  x^rab  slave-raiders,  whose  power  he 
set  himself  to  break  up,  thought  in  divergent  grooves 


12  thp:  false  equation 

and  represented  antagonistic  schemes.     The  philan- 
thropist who  founds  a  Garden  City  and  the  pitiless 
Shylock  who  rackrents  a  slum  have  antithetic  views 
of  life  because  of  the  contrasted  types  of  character 
which  give  impact   to  their  notions.      The  passions 
cooped  up  in  our  close  criminal  communities  do  not 
produce  rare  art,  seraphic  music,  supreme  literature. 
The  dreams  flitting  through  Pentonville,  Dartmoor, 
or  Broadmoor  brains,  and   the  dreams  cherished  in 
a  Peace  Congress,  would    make   books  for  different 
sections  if  written  down  and  presented  to  a  library. 
For  good  or  for  evil,  habits  of  conduct   shape   the 
orbit   within    which  a   human    mind    moves,   and    a 
virtuous  man's  notions  vary  immensely  from  a  profli- 
gate's.    This  fact  is  a  new  measure  of  the  disparity 
between  God's  thoughts  and  ways,  and  those  of  His 
degenerate  people.     Can  we  estimate  the  moral  diffe- 
rence between    the  human   and   the    Divine  ?      God 
spends  the  incomputable  term  of  His  Eternal  Being 
in    ministries    of  unwearied    grace, — upholding    the 
weak,  doing  good  to  all,  setting  forth  in  mighty  deeds 
His  truth  and  righteousness,  so  proving  within  Him- 
self that  "it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive"; 
whilst  we,  though  outwardly  blameless,   have  spent 
much  of  our  time  in  gathering   for  self-enrichment, 
taking  toll  of  our  neighbours,  asserting  our  place  in 
the  world,  bringing  others  into  captivity  to  our  will. 
And,  compressed  as  we  are  into  moral  dwarfishness 
by  the  traditions  of  an  imperfect  society,  we  think 
a  selfish  scheme  of  life  quite  defensible.     The  Divine 
nature,  like  a  fountain,  is  ever  pouring  itself  forth  in 
benediction,  without  taint  of  self  or  stain  of  darkness; 
whilst  human   nature   is  a   turgid,  devouring  whirl- 
pool, sucking   down   into   its  depths   whatever  may 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION 


chance  to  drift  within  its  range.  When  we  think  and 
act,  we  are  weighted  by  the  incubus  of  past  aggressive- 
ness and  dishonour ;  but  when  God  thinks  and  acts, 
His  character  of  age-long  goodness  upHfts  all  His 
ideals  beyond  the  uttermost  heights.  Can  we  reason- 
ably expect  an  unbroken  parallelism  and  congruity 
between  God's  thoughts  and  ways  and  our  own  ? 
Beyond  the  highest  heavens  is  it  not  possible  there 
may  be  visions  and  counsels  such  as  cannot  be 
conceived  amidst  the  poor,  mean  habitations  of  men  ; 
and  is  it  fitting  that  we  should  seek  to  correct  by 
by  our  own  poor  reckonings  the  intimations  of  these 
things  which  reach  us  ? 

The  sense  of  unequal  responsibilities  in  dissimilar 
relationships  tends  to  differentiate  both  thought  and 
action.  The  notions  of  a  child  have  little  in  common 
with  those  of  a  man  of  affairs.  The  musings  of  a 
king's  mind  revolve  round  topics  other  than  those 
which  engage  the  alien  wayfarer  who  may  be  passing 
through  his  realms.  A  householder  dissents  from  the 
views  of  a  sodden  tramp,  and  a  father  has  ideas  of 
what  is  becoming  in  his  neighbourhood,  which  are  not 
always  those  of  a  man  who  is  without  kith  or  kin. 
It  is  said  there  would  have  been  no  Inquisition  if 
there  had  been  no  celibate  clergy,  for  husbands  and 
fathers  look  upon  human  life  with  more  tenderness 
than  priests  and  cardinals,  who  deal  with  abstract 
questions  of  statecraft.  The  home  relationships  in 
which  we  stand  compel  us  to  a  more  humane  outlook 
as  we  turn  our  eyes  across  the  world.  It  is  not  often 
that  responsible  and  irresponsible  people  find  their 
judgments  in  perfect  accord.  A  right-minded  ruler, 
with  a  hundred  millions  of  people  looking  up  to  him 
for  succour  and  guidance,  must  think  in  other  cate- 


14  THE   FALSE   EQUATION 

gories  than  those  to  which  the  adventurer  who  has 
just  stepped  out  of  a  balloon  is  partial.  Of  course, 
this  rule  of  criticism  may  be  carried  too  far.  It  is 
sometimes  assumed  that  a  fool  can  be  changed  into 
a  sage  if  you  put  serious  affairs  into  his  hands  for 
settlement.  But  this  is  no  more  possible  than  to 
change  a  pariah  dog  into  a  St.  Bernard  by  tying 
a  basket  round  its  neck  and  letting  it  loose  in  the 
Alpine  snows,  or  than  to  convert  a  mule  into  an 
elephant  by  putting  across  its  back  a  golden  howdah 
within  which  a  rajah  is  seated.  But,  without 
exaggerating  the  rule,  is  it  not  obvious  that  the 
conscience  is  quickened  and  the  mind  steadied  by 
events  of  critical  significance  ?  The  girl  with  silly, 
frivolous  dreams  grows  wise,  resourceful,  trustworthy, 
when  some  family  disaster  swoops  down  and  she  has 
to  uphold  the  pillars  of  the  home.  The  old  fashion 
of  thought  changes,  and  is  replaced  by  a  nobler. 
The  man  with  the  cares  of  administration  upon  his 
mind  sees  things  differently  from  the  leisured  trifler. 
The  first  touch  of  the  sceptre  has  sobered  many 
a  giddy  young  prince  into  wisdom,  and  marked  a 
new  era  in  his  capacity  for  high  thinking.  He  who 
feels  the  burden  of  sacred  interests  pressing  upon 
his  soul  thinks  more  deeply,  broadly,  intensely, 
veraciously,  than  his  neighbour.  The  faculties  of  his 
mind  apply  themselves  in  new  directions. 

God  is  not  detached,  irresponsible,  self-secluded, 
but  a  God  who  thinks  with  burdens  resting  upon 
His  spirit  which  we  cannot  weigh.  It  is  true  His 
sovereignty  is  such  that  no  finite  being  can  challenge 
it,  and  yet  though  essential  and  underived  God  lives 
and  lives  only  for  the  worlds  He  has  made.  He  is 
the  Head  of  all  authorities,  King  of  kings,  Judge  of 


THE    FALSE   EQUATION  15 

judges,  and  His  thoughts  must  differ  from  ours,  who 
are  less  than  nothing  and  vanity.  His  is  the  Father- 
hood from  which  every  family  in  heaven  and  on  earth 
is  named,  and  the  outlook  of  His  pity  is  more  many- 
sided  and  far-reaching  than  man's.  His  dominion  is 
over  known  and  unknown  worlds,  and  endureth 
throughout  all  generations.  He  thinks  for  each,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  thinks  for  all.  Towards  us,  and 
towards  spheres  of  which  we  have  not  heard,  His 
hand  is  stretched  out,  and  His  many  counsels  meet 
and  merge  in  some  wider  harmony  we  do  not  com- 
prehend. It  is  folly  to  expect  that  His  thoughts 
will  keep  step  with  ours  and  conform  to  their  scale 
and  pattern.  His  aims  and  methods  are  beyond  our 
reckoning. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  last  century  Walter  Scott, 
poet  and  novelist,  took  a  voyage  round  the  north  and 
west  coasts  of  Scotland  in  company  with  Stevenson, 
the  lighthouse  constructor.  Scott  went  for  pleasure, 
and  wherever  they  landed  spent  his  time  in  visiting 
ruined  castles,  talking  with  the  old  gossips  of  the 
hamlets  and  picking  up  local  traditions,  which 
he  afterwards  wove  into  his  fascinating  stories. 
Stevenson  was  sent  out  by  Trinity  House  to  survey 
the  coast,  mark  out  dangerous  reefs,  and  choose  the 
best  sites  for  lighthouses.  Scott  landed  when  the 
weather  was  fair  and  the  sea  smooth.  His  friend 
faced  the  gales  in  open  boats,  visited  jagged  rocks 
over  which  the  white  surf  boiled,  and  braved  countless 
dangers,  because  he  was  commissioned  to  find  out 
where  warning  beacons  must  be  fixed  and  lighthouses 
placed,  and  how  in  the  coming  generations  imperilled 
lives  could  be  saved.  When  the  storm  outside  shakes 
doors  and  windows  we  sit   by  the  fireside  deriving 


i6  THE    FALSE    EQUATION 

pleasure  from  the  wizard's  books  ;  but  the  seaman 
battling  with  the  waves  finds  salvation  through  the 
thought  and  work  of  the  romance  writer's  comrade. 
The  two  men  were  the  best  of  friends,  and  as  they 
met  day  by  day  had  many  interests  in  common. 
But  their  thoughts  ran  in  different  directions  because 
the  one  had  no  responsibilities  and  was  catering  for 
the  tastes  of  his  admiring  readers,  whilst  the  other 
bore  upon  his  soul  a  great  burden  of  human  life. 
Their  paths  diverged  for  their  duties  varied,  and  their 
minds  were  acting  in  different  grooves.  God  thinks 
with  the  burdens  of  a  doomed  race  resting  upon  His 
soul  of  love,  and  acts  to  ransom  them  from  the  power 
of  destruction.  His  thoughts  and  ways  are  beyond 
ours,  even  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth. 
Do  we  pay  the  mighty  God  due  deference  by  always 
bearing  in  mind  the  interval  between  His  thought 
and  ours?  Perhaps  we  treat  Him  with  scantier 
consideration  than  we  show  in  dealing  with  our 
fellow-mortals.  When  brought  into  contact  with  a 
neighbour  we  allow  for  his  idiosyncrasy,  if  we  see 
that  the  average  rules  of  social  intercourse  do  not 
quite  apply.  We  bring  into  account  his  training,  the 
racial  strain  in  his  temperament,  the  place  of  his 
birth  and  its  traditions,  his  associations,  the  special 
business  groove  in  which  he  moves,  and,  unless 
we  are  very  unsophisticated,  we  guard  ourselves 
against  assuming  that  his  views  must  match  with 
our  own  in  every  detail.  By  looking  out  for  the 
personal  equation  and  studying  the  shaping  influences 
of  his  past,  we  get  on  to  easy  and  workable  terms 
with  him,  in  spite  of  initial  dissimilarities.  If  we 
enter  into  commercial  relations  with  a  foreign  client 
we  take  pains  to  understand  the  type  and  prepare 


THE   FALSE   EQUATION  17 

ourselves  for  wider  divergencies  than  obtain  amongst 
our  fellow-citizens.  We  glance  at  the  history  of 
his  fatherland,  acquire  familiarity  with  the  etiquette 
to  which  he  has  been  accustomed,  get  a  little  hand- 
book of  his  grammar  and  smatter  our  way  through 
five  or  six  pages.  We  may  even  glance  at  a  text- 
book of  the  literature  of  the  country  to  which  he 
belongs.  Perhaps  we  ask  about  the  climate  in  which 
he  has  lived,  and  prepare  for  any  modification  in 
his  habits  it  may  have  produced.  And  thus  in  some 
rude,  tentative  fashion  we  bridge  the  interval  of 
nationality.  We  allow  for  the  variation  between  his 
mental  standpoint  and  our  own,  when  it  is  our 
interest  to  do  so.  Of  course  there  are  persons  who 
do  not  take  this  trouble,  and  assume  the  world  should 
bring  its  own  staff  of  interpreters  and  bow  down 
at  the  feet  of  the  favoured  Briton.  It  is  meet  that 
men  of  all  races  should  conform  to  the  insular 
caprices  of  John  Bull.  They  must  accept  his  pat- 
terns, his  colour  schemes,  his  models  of  machinery, 
his  standardised  nuts  and  bolts.  The  German,  the 
Turk,  the  Hindoo,  the  Chinaman,  must  learn  the 
tongue  of  the  great  world-empire  and  its  citizens, 
and  it  is  not  for  the  member  of  an  elect  race  to 
bend  to  the  caprice  of  the  Gentiles.  For  this 
peculiar  development  of  a  narrow  patriotism  we  pay 
the  penalty,  and  lose  not  a  little  trade  on  four 
continents.     But  the  humour  pleases  us. 

Do  we  not  too  often  treat  God  by  the  same 
boastful  and  unhappy  precedent  ?  We  wait  for  Him 
to  come  over  to  our  prejudices,  to  bow  Himself  to 
our  parochial  fashions  of  thought,  to  take  pattern 
by  our  peevish,  petty  ways  and  conventions.  His 
notions  must   merge  into  ours  and  He  must  needs 


i8  THE   FALSE   EQUATION 

follow  all  the  twists  and  obliquities  of  our  little 
orbits.  But  the  great  problems  of  faith  and  life 
do  not  solve  themselves  thus  :  and  we  are  not 
pleased.  Staggered  at  finding  that  God  does  not 
always  condescend  to  be  of  our  opinion,  we  begin 
to  ask,  "  Can  there  in  very  truth  be  a  God  ?  Many 
things  in  the  theology  which  seeks  to  interpret  Him 
are  displeasing  to  our  tastes  and  even  make  a  mock 
of  our  predispositions.  We  have  settled  beforehand 
our  canons  of  evidence,  but  the  Bible  does  not 
always  fall  in  with  them."  So  we  think, and  sometimes 
think  aloud.  But  are  we  allowing  a  just  margin 
for  the  inevitable  disparity  between  the  thoughts 
of  mortals  and  of  the  great  Immortal?  It  is  true 
no  better  test  of  that  which  we  are  bound  to  believe 
can  be  found  than  a  conscience  kept  alive  by  the 
breath  of  a  holy  and  jealous  God.  Granting  this, 
however,  we  soon  pass  into  the  realm  of  the  incom- 
prehensible. Do  we  take  the  trouble  of  accommo- 
dating ourselves  to  the  greatness  of  the  God  who 
is  in  heaven  whilst  we  are  upon  earth  ?  God's 
method  of  teaching  us  would  not  be  by  a  revelation 
if  the  finite  could  adjust  itself  at  once  to  the  infinite 
mind.  In  a  revelation  we  have  presented  to  us 
some  of  the  unassimilated  disparities  between  God's 
thoughts  and  ways  and  those  of  His  creature  man. 
Without  realising  it  we  verge  upon  the  impiety  of 
assuming  that  God  has  nothing  to  teach  us  and  that 
we  may  have  something  to  teach  Him.  You  do 
not  hope  to  master  Newton's  "  Principia "  with  as 
much  ease  as  you  grasp  snippets  of  toothsome 
frivolities  in  the  columns  of  the  daily  press.  You 
ought  not  to  think  the  Most  High  as  easy  to  under- 
stand  as  a   plain,  plodding,  transparent   neighbour. 


THE    FALSE   EQUATION  19 

Is  it  seemly  to  expect  that  the  mighty  God  will 
adopt  our  methods  and  put  Himself  into  step  for 
all  time  with  the  dwarfs  of  earth?  This  gross, 
phenomenal  self-complacency,  this  thrice-assured 
infallibility  proof  against  all  doubt  of  itself,  is  an 
offence.  God  does  sometimes  bow  the  heavens  and 
strangely  condescend  to  our  infirmity,  but  it  would 
be  a  poor  kindness  to  us  if  He  were  to  make  those 
infirmities,  rather  than  His  own  higher  thoughts  and 
surpassing  ways,  the  limit  of  His  self- revelations  and 
the  bounds  of  our  destiny.  We  are  not  slowly 
evolving  ourselves  into  the  knowledge  of  God,  but 
God  is  meeting  us  with  a  vast  body  of  truth  con- 
cerning His  being  and  His  providential  ways,  the 
vaster  part  of  which  yet  remains  to  be  touched  and 
assimilated. 

It  is  easy  to  find  practical  illustrations  of  this 
divergence  between  God's  thoughts  and  ways  and 
man's. 

Men  often  arraign  the  order  of  the  universe  and 
pass  judgment  upon  its  methods  in  a  temper  which 
implies  that  no  appeal  from  their  verdict  is  possible. 
The  master  of  the  latest  science  has  reached  finality 
in  his  researches  and  poses  as  one  wiser  than  the 
creative  power  itself  Nature,  he  asserts,  has  no 
aims,  but  is  simply  the  presiding  genius  at  a 
biological  lottery.  But  surely  the  most  advanced 
thinker  of  our  generation  is  unfit  to  pronounce 
upon  consummations  which  may  be  reached  ten 
thousand  years  hence,  reached  in  spheres  to  which 
we  cannot  at  present  penetrate.  We  know  in  part, 
and  the  coadjustment  of  the  part  to  the  whole  is 
hidden  from  us.  They  could  have  improved,  forsooth, 
upon   Nature's  methods  if  they  had  been  consulted 


20  THE   FALSE   EQUATION 

at  the  beginning.  In  comparison  with  many  of  our 
brilliant  contemporaries  the  patriarch  Job  was  a  child, 
and  research  has  travelled  far  since  his  day,  and 
yet  we  make  bold  to  say  the  Almighty's  challenge 
to  His  servant  is  still  valid.  We  do  not  know  the 
innermost  secrets  of  life,  and  are  still  less  fit  to 
judge  of  the  end  towards  which  all  things  move. 
The  Australian  black  man  thinks  the  revolving 
wheels  of  a  wagon  miraculous,  and  when  a  thunder- 
storm breaks  or  a  hostile  tribe  appears  he  hides  under 
the  axle-tree  as  under  a  protecting  fetish.  Carried 
away  with  an  idea  of  this  sort  how  can  he  interpret 
the  thoughts  in  the  brain  of  the  white  man  who  is 
driving  through  the  bush?  He  neither  sows  nor 
reaps.  How  can  he  appreciate  the  place  of  harvests 
in  the  order  of  the  civilised  world  as  he  sees  the 
man  who  directs  the  reaping  machine  or  the  steam 
plough  sitting  in  a  framework  above  wheels.  When 
his  brain  has  been  emptied  of  the  witchery  of 
revolving  wheels  he  may  find  room  for  other  ideas 
to  which  these  adjustments  contribute.  The  accom- 
plished thinker  is  often  so  absorbed  in  watching 
the  revolutions  of  the  worlds  and  the  cycles  of 
evolving  life  that  he  is  oblivious  of  the  distant 
goals.  He  cannot  appreciate  an  end  in  Nature 
unless  it  is  utilitarian.  He  sees  nothing  but  a 
series  of  physical  adaptations  and  adjustments.  All 
disciplinary  and  educational  uses  are  absent  from 
the  visible  order  of  things,  or  only  appear  as  for- 
tuitous by-products.  He  ignores  the  higher  stand- 
point at  which  the  severities  of  Nature  may  take 
on  an  aspect  of  exquisite  and  inexhaustible  kindness. 
Like  the  little  child  who  screams  and  fights  when 
the  ambulance  appears  to  carry  off  to  an  unknown 


THE   FALSE   EQUATION  21 

place  some  stricken  member  of  his  household,  he 
fumes  with  ignorant  revolt.  A  child  has  short  views, 
but  in  due  time  this  act  of  brutal  roughness  presents 
itself  in  a  new  light.  The  invaders  despoil  so  that 
they  may  give  back,  for  they  are  disguised  ministers 
of  healing  and  salvation.  Nature  is  full  of  such 
disguised  ministries  which  her  children  misunder- 
stand. As  well  try  to  judge  the  flight  of  an  angel 
through  the  sky  by  the  fossil  footprints  of  lizards 
in  the  primeval  slime,  as  trace  God's  ways  by  the 
signs  in  Nature.     His  footsteps  are  not  known. 

A   hard,  narrow  materialism    caricatures    God   by 

speaking  of  Him  as  though  He  were  a  finite  being, 

charged    with   the    unequal    burdens   of  an    infinite 

universe.     We  are  told  that  He  cannot  regard  such 

a   fraction   of  the  stellar  immensities   as   our   poor, 

mean    earth   and    its    ultra-microscopic    inhabitants. 

We  occupy  a  minute  point  in  space.     This  notion 

preached   in  season   and   out  of  season  is  common 

both  to   polytheism  and   to  the  modern  philosophy 

which  scoffs  at  all  possibility  of  personal  relations 

between  the  human  soul  and  God.     The  great  King 

of   Heaven,  argues  the   Pagan,  must  have  ranks  of 

little  gods  to  help  Him  if  He  is  to  concern  Himself 

with   human    affairs.     The    man    of  an   unbelieving 

science  declares  it  is    impossible   for   God,  if  there 

be  a  God,  to  cherish  and  direct  human  life,  and  we 

are   left    to   the   pre-ordained    mechanisms    of    law 

and  force.     A   captain  of  labour  must  needs  have 

a  chief  manager,  with  a  staff  of  smaller  overseers, 

and  cannot  enter  into  the  individual  circumstances 

of  five   thousand    hands.     A  landed  aristocrat  puts 

his  power  into  commission  with  stewards  and  farm 

bailiffs,  and  cannot  spare  time  to  study  each  peasant 


22  THE   FALSE   EQUATION 

scattered  over  half  a  county.  The  Tsar  of  all  the 
Russias  governs  through  a  caste  of  Grand  Dukes, 
for  his  brain  will  not  hold  a  greater  complex  of 
interests  than  ours.  A  direct  appeal  is  useless,  and 
the  petitioner  is  referred  to  General  Trepoff  and 
the  police.  This  world  with  its  thousand  millions 
of  human  souls  is  a  sand-grain,  stained  with  a  tiny 
growth,  and  it  is  out  of  all  proper  proportion  to 
believe  that  God  can  care  for  us.  Christianity  with 
its  sublime  romance  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  and 
redemptive  Providence  is  the  symptom  that  human 
nature  thinks  far  too  much  of  its  own  importance. 
God  does  not  vex  Himself  with  the  task  of  either 
judging  the  sins  or  healing  the  wounds  of  such 
minute  and  ephemeral  things  as  we  are.  He  cannot 
care  for  us,  or  pay  heed  to  our  prayers,  for  if  He 
really  exists  there  are  more  important  things  to 
engage  His  thought.  This  quasi-scientific  view 
demeans  the  capacity  of  God  as  much  as  it  ignores 
the  true  significance  of  man,  putting  into  the  Divine 
mind  thoughts  which  more  properly  belong  to  a 
Caesar,  a  Grand  Duke,  a  feudal  baron,  who  has 
no  more  aptitude  for  complex  affairs  than  the  rest 
of  us,  and  whose  mental  powers  do  not  stretch  with 
the  breadth  of  his  acres.  It  attributes  to  the  Most 
High  the  restricted  outlook  of  the  patrician  who 
does  not  and  cannot  think  of  the  common  herd.  It 
reduces  the  Almighty  to  the  level  of  the  finite, 
crediting  Him  with  no  wider  range  of  thought  than 
can  be  contained  within  a  human  brain.  Is  it  con- 
ceit, forsooth,  to  say  that  God  thinks  of  us  ?  Is  it 
not  a  blasphemy  to  say  that  He  does  not  ?  We 
cannot  depict  a  world  in  which  men  are  made 
insignificant  in  the  sight  of  God,  without  first  pulling 


THE    FALSE    EQUATION  23 

God  down  to  our  own  earthly  levels  of  character  and 
capacity.  Such  a  view  involves  an  anthropomorphic 
belittlement  of  The  Eternal  surcharged  with  insult 
and  blasphemy. 

It  is  not  always  easy  for  us  to  accept,  in  all  their 
unknown  dimensions,  the  motive  principles  of  God's 
thought  and  activity.  His  righteousness  and  His 
pardoning  compassions  are  both  asserted  upon  a 
scale  of  superhuman  magnitude,  and  the  one  does 
not  cancel  or  circumscribe  the  other.  Large  spaces 
in  human  life  are  monopolised  by  arid  selfishnesses, 
whilst  the  generosities  of  love  shine  here  and  there 
like  coy  blooms  in  infrequent  nooks  and  crannies, 
so  that  we  are  tempted  to  think  that  greed,  strife, 
retaliation,  are  the  dominant,  all-comprehending  laws 
of  life.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  in  the  grace  of  re- 
demption. We  all  find  it  so,  and  the  Gospel  comes 
to  us  with  a  dreamy  atmosphere  about  it.  But  it 
is  the  tradition  of  a  mean,  aggressive  character  which 
makes  the  evangel  seem  vague,  elusive,  unintelligible. 
Those  religious  despondencies  which  sometimes 
insinuate  themselves  into  men  and  women  who  are 
the  excellent  of  the  earth  are  exhalations  from 
human  infirmity  and  imperfection.  We  are  vic- 
timised by  a  fixed  habit  of  applying  the  human 
scale  to  the  thoughts  and  ways  of  God.  Our  ideas 
of  that  which  is  beyond  us  are  limited  by  our 
own  unhappy  natures  and  we  cannot  get  out  of  the 
vitiated  psychic  atmosphere  which  imprisons  the 
soul.  When  we  are  outside  the  home,  and  some- 
times even  within  the  home  circle  itself,  we  are 
merciless  in  judgment,  unsparing  in  temper,  sordid 
in  policy  ;  and  the  shadow  of  our  limitation  flings 
its   cold  eclipse  upon  the  throne  where  the  infinite 


24  THE   FALSE   EQUATION 

love  reigns.  Every  cruel  war  plotted  for  by  ministers 
of  the  Evil  One  and  fanned  by  a  brutal  press,  till 
the  populace  pants  for  blood,  fetters  religious  faith 
in  God's  goodness.  The  great  Teacher  had  to  make 
an  ethic  of  cosmopolitan  altruism  a  part  of  His 
Gospel  lesson.  Faith  in  the  Most  High  is  cramped 
by  all  that  cramps  the  finer  genius  of  humanity. 
The  virtues  which  have  scarcely  a  rudimentary 
beginning  in  our  own  hearts  we  cannot  credit  to 
others,  not  even  to  God  Himself  As  a  rule  we 
do  not  soberly  expect  bigger  generosities  in  God 
than  we  find  in  the  world.  We  fashion  God  out 
of  the  substance  of  our  own  exclusiveness  and 
retaliation  and  are  terrified  into  despair  by  the 
monstrosity  we  produce.  Is  the  method  right  ? 
Can  we  measure  with  the  cubit  of  our  forearm  the 
space  between  ourselves  and  Sirius?  If  God  does 
indeed  transcend  the  finite  our  doubts  and  mis- 
givings are  an  illogical  madness.  Of  course  it  is 
hard  to  believe  this  gospel  of  incredible  freeness. 
We  all  find  it  so,  for  doubt  is  born  of  the  unhappy 
past  which  lies  behind  us.  But  if  God's  forgiveness 
were  expressed  in  the  measures  appropriate  to  human 
experience  would  it  not  prove  the  earthly  origin 
of  the  message?  We  have  just  as  much  right  to 
draw  God's  natural  attributes  to  the  scale  of  the 
monad  as  to  draw  His  moral  attributes  to  the  scale 
of  a  man.  If  God  forgives  at  all  He  will  do  it  with 
God-like  freedom  and  grandeur.  If  He  permits  us 
to  crawl  across  His  threshold  He  will  not  merely 
tolerate  our  return  but  welcome  us  with  music  and 
priceless  gifts.  Alas  !  alas  !  we  put  into  the  match- 
less mind  which  delights  in  mercy  poor  Simon 
Peter's    thought     of    a     forgiveness    stretched    and 


THE   FALSE    EQUATION 


-^D 


strained  to  seven  times,  whilst  all  the  time  His  mercy 
outsoars  and  outspeeds  ours  as  the  path  of  a  sun 
outsoars  the  track  of  a  glow-worm  in  the  ditch. 
His  thoughts  are  not  bound  by  our  petty  precedents 
of  limitation. 

The   story   of  redemption    is    too    much    for   our 
faith,  and  yet,  if  the  misgivings  we  feel  are  honestly 
analysed,  must  we  not  admit  that  the  hardness  arises 
from   forgetfulness   of  this   disparity  between   God's 
thought  and  man's  ?     The  holiness  and  love  which 
are  its   paramount   motives   imply  intensities  in  the 
Divine   mind   exceeding   our   zeal    as    much  as  the 
central  fires  of  the  sun  exceed  the  heats  of  the  summer 
noon.     One  wonders  how  the  thought  of  such  an 
intervention    first   got    into   human    minds    if    God 
Himself  did    not   lodge    it   there.     The    length  and 
breadth,   the   depth    and    height   of    God's   thought 
baffle  all  computation,  and    this   is  the   clue   to  the 
sublime  extravagance  in  the  central  thought  of  the 
Gospel.      We   cannot   believe   God   gave  His   only- 
begotten  Son  for  the  spiritual  healing  and  salvation 
of  His  enemies,  since  such  an  act  would  be  impossible 
to   us.     No  hero  of  whom   we  have  read  or  heard 
is  equal   to  a  like  sacrifice.     It  defies  probabilities. 
Is  not  this  a  sign  that  the  Gospel,  and  the  message 
within  it,  was  thought  out  in   a  mind  transcending 
ours,  and  the  way  of  the  Cross  was  a  way  suggested 
by  no  analogies  of  history  ?     When  we  come  within 
the  circle  of  the  Divine  ideas  let  us  empty  our  minds 
of  the  meagre,  dwarfish,  ignoble  conceptions  within 
them  and  let  us  prepare  ourselves  for  new  spiritual 
magnitudes.      Let  us  wait  for  that  supernatural  en- 
largement of  nature  which  can  alone  enable  us  to  re- 
ceive the  thoughts  which  are  high  above  our  thoughts. 


II 

TESTED   BY  THE    INCARNATION 

"  Every  spirit  which  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in 
the  flesh  is  of  God."— i  John  iv.  2. 

The  midnight  scene  of  the  Nativity,  when  wit- 
nesses from  heaven  came  to  assure  the  shepherds 
of  that  Advent  for  which  their  race  had  long  been 
waiting,  has  its  counterpart  in  the  after-generations. 
Shapes  of  Hght  no  longer  gleam  before  the  vision  nor 
do  strains  of  unearthly  music  greet  the  ear ;  but 
behind  the  veil  of  the  prophet's  personality,  and 
within  the  consciousness  of  every  true  believer,  a 
witness  to  the  Incarnate  Saviour  speaks,  and  that 
voice  of  witness  may  sometimes  be  challenged  by  the 
spirits  which  speak  in  the  world  and  mutter  their 
oracles  of  ill-omen  in  our  selfish,  doubting  hearts. 
The  signs  and  wonders  imprinted  upon  the  senses 
of  the  shepherds  called  attention  to  outward  mani- 
festations of  God  which  the  apostles  and  their  con- 
temporaries were  privileged  to  behold.  These  men 
saw  with  their  eyes,  and  beheld,  and  their  hands 
handled  the  form  assumed  by  the  Eternal  Word.     It 

is  with  the  Incarnation  in  its  more  spiritual  aspects 

26 


TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION  27 

that  we  have  to  do  in  these  last  times  ;  and  witnesses 
and  counter-witnesses  address  us  still  from  unseen 
realms  of  both  good  and  evil.  The  Spirit  who  attests 
the  Incarnate  Saviour  and  His  virtues  is  one,  although 
He  identifies  Himself  with  the  personality  of  the 
prophet,  and  as  seen  through  His  gifts  is  manifold. 
It  is  well  within  our  power  to  distinguish  between  the 
spirits  coming  from  God's  throne  and  the  spirits  of 
selfishness  and  unbelief  which  would  fain  seduce  us 
from  the  cardinal  truths  of  redemption.  "  Every 
spirit  which  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in 
the  flesh  is  of  God." 

The  process  by  which  the  Word  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  amongst  us  is  incomprehensible.  The  doctrine 
presents  more  serious  difficulties  than  that  of  the 
vicarious  Atonement.  All  the  active  instincts  of  our 
moral  life  respond  at  once  to  the  idea  of  reconciliation 
with  a  righteous  God,  achieved  for  us  through  the  cross 
of  our  kinsman,  the  Divine  Mediator;  but  the  Incar- 
nation is  bound  up  with  those  elementary  mysteries 
which  are  at  the  root  of  all  life  and  which  baffle  us. 
That  a  pre-existent  life  should  take  upon  itself  a 
permanent  human  form  is  outside  that  order  of 
things  we  can  perceive  and  experience.  But  although 
the  doctrine  may  challenge  and  even  stagger  faith,  it 
furnishes  no  just  ground  for  denial.  The  central 
miracle  is  ethical,  and  if  we  can  receive  that,  the 
other  mysteries  will  not,  in  the  end,  prove  themselves 
insuperable. 

The  physical  sciences  are  sometimes  used  to  cast 
doubt  upon  this  foundation  doctrine  of  the  Christian 
religion.  Our  world,  we  are  sometimes  told,  is  one 
of  a  many-millioned  multitude,  and  it  is  incredible 
that  the  Supreme  God  should  focus  upon  one  point 


28  TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION 

in  space  all  the  glory  of  His  ineffable  attributes  and 
consecrate  its  scenes  with  a  special  forth-putting  of 
His  holy  presence.    But  the  difficulty  is  greatly  exag- 
gerated, for  man's  significance  cannot  be  expressed  in 
geometric  terms.     We  do  not  measure  genius  by  the 
cradle,  the  nursery,  the  infant  school  of  unpretending 
dimensions  from  which  its  splendours  emerge.     The 
room  in  the  town-street  of  Stratford-on-Avon  where 
William    Shakespeare    first    saw    the    light   of   day, 
and  the  acreage  of  the  fields  over   which   he  after- 
wards  wandered,   offer   no   base-line   for  estimating 
the   dramatic    ranges   of  his    intellect.      Dr.    Alfred 
Russell   Wallace  has  recently  attempted  an  answer 
to  this  class  of  objection  in  a  book  by  which  he  tries 
to  show  that  our  earth  may  be  the  true  astronomical 
centre   of    the   universe.      No   other   orb   seems    to 
present  the  same  complex  fitness  to  sustain  that  sen- 
tient, organic  life  which  reaches  its  highest  consum- 
mation in  man.    If  neighbouring  worlds  are  inhabited 
the  creatures  must   be   either  made  of  asbestos,  or 
capable  on  the  other  hand  of  resisting  unimaginable 
degrees  of  cold.     But  the  argument  is  irrelevant  and 
it  is  perhaps  a  pity  that  this  devout  scientist  should 
have  spent  his  keen  powers  and  his  wide  knowledge 
upon  the  discussion  of  such  a  question.     The  orien- 
tation of  our  planet  in  the  huge  maze  of  worlds  is  a 
subject  that  does  not  touch  the  core  of  the  problem. 
What  is  man.?     Is  he  worth   redeeming?     Are  his 
sins  and  sorrows  of  so  tragic  an  order  that  a  benign 
God  might  feel  them  and  be  moved  to  compassion  ? 
Man  is  at  least  the  highest  created  being  we  know, 
capable  of  an  unrivalled  sovereignty  over  the  humbler 
kingdoms  of  life,  with  huge  potentialities  of  good  and 
evil  in  his  span  of  days,  with  an  elastic  and  many- 


TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION  29 

sided  sensitiveness  in  his  faculties  and  affections,  to 
which  no  corresponding  example  presents  itself  The 
doubt  that  God,  perhaps,  may  not  think  us  worth 
saving  at  a  sacrifice  is  bred  by  our  proud,  selfish 
temper  towards  many  of  our  fellow-men  whom  we 
classify  as  unemployable  and  not  worthy  of  being 
lifted  up.  It  is  hard  for  creatures  such  as  we  have 
made  ourselves  to  believe  in  that  central  mystery  of 
ethics,  through  which  the  Sovereign  mind  of  the 
universe  bows  itself  to  our  low  estate.  But  do  not 
let  us  make  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  the 
difficulty  is  organic  rather  than  moral.  The  space 
objection  is  illusive.  Is  God  love,  as  the  Apostle  John 
affirms?  If  He  be  it  is  no  wonder  that  He  should 
direct  His  compassions  towards  us  and  put  that  seal  of 
distinction  upon  the  world,  with  which  it  is  stamped 
when  it  becomes  the  scene  of  His  Incarnation. 
Human  selfishness  rather  than  pure  science  brings  in 
the  stumbling-block  which  impedes  our  faith  in  this 
doctrine. 

The  mystery  which  invests  the  method  of  the 
Incarnation  has  its  parallels  in  the  facts  of  common 
life.  The  nerve-substance  of  the  brain  is  the  medium 
within  which  an  invisible  intelligence  operates  that 
cannot  be  produced  or  explained  by  any  of  the 
properties  known  to  physical  science.  The  link  of 
vital  association  between  mind  and  the  bodily  form 
within  which  it  pulsates,  cannot  be  detected  or 
defined.  How  is  it  that  a  hidden  act  of  will,  or  a 
series  of  complex  and  perhaps  abstract  ideas,  sets  up 
subtle  discharges  of  chemical  force  within  the  brain 
and  the  muscles  ?  No  answer  has  yet  been  given. 
The  thinker,  who  postulates  an  eternal  relation 
between  certain  groups  of  electrons  and  the  higher 


30  TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION 

processes  of  thought,  makes  the  elemental  substance 
of  the  universe  an  incarnation,  which  had  no  begin- 
ning. His  biologic  assumption  is  just  as  great  as  that 
made  by  John  when  he  tells  us  that  the  Word  was 
made  flesh,  which  reflected  into  human  vision  the 
glory  of  the  only-begotten  Son. 

The  metaphysic  of  the  Pantheist,  who  says  that 
God  is  the  sum-total  of  all  that  exists,  needs  as  large 
or  even  a  larger  groundwork  of  mystery.  And  it  is 
curious  to  find  that  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  or 
justifying  his  faith,  he  requires  some  such  theory  of 
depotentiation,  as  the  theologian  has  formulated  to 
harmonise  God  and  man  into  one  personality.  In 
the  lower  kingdoms  of  matter  he  must  first  make 
God  empty  Himself  before  He  can  affirm  His  perfect 
immanence.  In  fact  the  Pantheist  sees  in  the  uni- 
verse a  composite  of  three  or  four  incarnations,  bound 
together  into  a  cosmic  unity,  more  or  less  conscious. 
Through  the  realms  of  inert  matter  the  All-Soul 
diffuses  itself,  but  these  realms  can  only  set  forth 
the  greatness  of  Divine  power.  God's  intelligence, 
benignity,  and  purposes  of  effective  righteousness 
find  a  very  limited  expression  or  embodiment  there. 
And  then  the  All-Soul  pervades  organic  life,  pervades 
it  much  more  richly  in  the  keen  and  many-sided 
discernments  and  sensibilities  of  the  animal  than  in 
the  duller  functions  of  the  plant.  And  in  a  still  higher 
degree  God  is  immanent  in  man,  transcendently  so 
in  One  who  sums  up  in  his  own  character  all  the 
best  qualities  of  the  race  to  which  he  belongs.  When 
brain  and  conscience  have  reached  their  highest 
evolution,  hidden  magnitudes  of  the  Divine  nature 
emerge  into  consciousness  and  open  manifestation. 
Whilst  all  things  are  woven  into  the  sensitive  web 


TESTED   BY   THE   INCARNATION  31 


of  one  infinite  life,  man,  at  his  best,  becomes  the 
culminating  expression  of  the  Divine  reason  and 
righteousness.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  has  said : 
"  We  see  the  world  piece  by  piece  as  the  sun,  the 
moon,  the  animal,  the  tree  ;  but  the  whole  of  which 
these  are  the  shining  parts  is  the  soul."  "  Ineffable 
is  the  union  of  man  and  God  in  every  act  of  the  soul. 
The  simplest  soul  who  in  his  integrity  worships  God 
becomes  God  ;  yet  for  ever  and  ever  the  influx  of 
this  new  and  better  self  is  new  and  unsearchable." 
Such  phraseology  implies  a  mass  of  successive  and 
nebulous  incarnations  ;  but  the  process  postulated  by 
the  Christian  theologian,  who  says  that  God  became 
man,  not  by  the  conversion  of  Godhead  into  the 
flesh  but  by  taking  of  the  manhood  into  God,  is 
reversed.  Human  nature  in  its  spiritual  ecstasies 
adopts  the  Divine  into  itself  No  theory  of  the  world 
and  of  human  life  can  dispense  with  some  form  of  the 
postulate  which  underlies  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
the  Incarnation. 

The  thinkers  of  many  lands  have  been  accustomed 
to  regard  every  new  birth  into  the  world  as  an 
incarnation,  not  indeed  of  the  Supreme  God  in  His 
infinite  perfection,  but  of  a  pre-existing  soul.  From 
the  prairie  of  the  West  where  the  red  man  is  fading 
into  oblivion  to  the  plains  of  the  Far  East  where  the 
yellow  man  is  pressing  into  view,  in  Egypt,  in  India, 
amongst  many  of  the  thinkers  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome,  the  belief  in  tranmsigration  has  held  the 
ground  against  all  other  theories  of  the  genesis  of 
personality.  For  men  who  are  not  monotheists  by 
training  it  is  easier  to  believe  in  a  rebirth  rather  than 
in  a  continuous  creation  of  new  souls,  destined  to  enter 
into  and  possess  the  new  forms  which  arise  in  the 


32  TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION 


world  with  every  fresh  generation  of  history.  Some- 
times in  the  popular  imagination  the  reincarnation  is 
stamped  with  a  peculiar  significance,  and  there  appears 
upon  the  scene  of  life  a  being  who  transcends  the 
average  limitations  of  the  race,  a  new  god  or  a  pro- 
vidential hero,  the  organ  of  Heaven's  august  will.  The 
commonness  of  these  alleged  incarnations  has  been 
held  to  prove  that  the  Christian  doctrine  is  plagiar- 
ised from  Paganism  itself  But  the  Incarnation, 
taught  in  the  Gospels  and  the  Epistles,  stands  quite 
alone  in  its  moral  and  religious  significance.  The 
avatas  of  the  gods  are  not  supposed  to  manifest 
ineffable  moral  attributes  or  to  achieve  ends  of  sur- 
passing spiritual  grandeur  and  benignity.  They  are 
mere  displays  of  power,  self-exalting  acts  intended  to 
assert  over  human  hearts  the  authority  of  the  beings 
who  rule  in  the  over-bending  azure.  In  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred  the  avatar-legend  reflects  the 
selfishness,  the  ambition,  or  the  tragic  revenges  of  the 
human  heart.  No  Oriental  can  easily  believe  that 
one  who  has  once  outsoared  the  illusions  of  deceptive 
senses,  and  passed  into  the  higher  planes  of  being, 
willingly  descends  to  take  upon  himself  human  pains 
and  mortal  imperfections.  The  Godhead  is  every- 
where held  as  a  prize  to  be  seized  upon  and  never 
surrendered.  When  a  reincarnation  is  supposed  to 
transcend  the  normal  order  of  life,  the  event  is 
treated  as  though  it  were  apparitional  rather  than 
organic,  and  the  philosophy  which  interprets  it 
corresponds  with  that  behind  the  Nestorian  heresies 
of  the  early  Church.  In  the  popular  imagination, 
God  cannot  suffer,  and  if  God  becomes  specially 
immanent  in  a  human  form,  all  that  is  essentially 
Divine   must    depart    from    that    form,   before   the 


TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION  33 

suffering  begins.  The  East  believes  those  ontological 
mysteries  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  this  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  but  to  escape  what  seems  a  greater 
marvel,  and  it  lacks  an  overpowering  moral  motive  to 
justify  its  faith.  If  we  can  be  led  to  believe  that  the 
Christian  mystery  is  ethically  credible,  we  need  not 
stumble  over  the  other  part  of  the  question,  for 
multitudes  of  keen  Oriental  thinkers  have  found  it 
easier  to  accept  an  endless  series  of  incarnations  than 
to  believe  in  the  independent  creation  of  human  souls 
at  each  terrestrial  birth. 

The  biological  problem  bound  up  with  this  doctrine 
has  its  human  counterpart  in  the  laws  of  heredity. 
That  not  a  few  of  the  specific  qualities  of  a  parent's 
mind  and  character  should  be  conveyed  to  his 
children  and  to  his  children's  children,  rests  upon  the 
same  underlying  assumptions  as  the  doctrine  of  the 
transmigration  of  souls.  Heredity  is  a  species  of 
mental  transmigration,  disengaged  of  course  from  that 
faculty  of  continuous  memory  which  is  the  unifying 
element  in  the  personal  consciousness.  Plato  thought 
that  all  ideas  were  dim  recollections  surviving  from 
some  pre-existent  state.  The  tastes,  aptitudes,  in- 
stincts, nervous  impressions,  which  show  themselves 
in  the  members  of  certain  families,  are  reprints  and 
duplicates  from  the  corresponding  qualities  of  a  near 
ancestry.  The  experiences  of  preceding  generations 
may  be  inherited,  and  even  knowledge  in  some  of  its 
forms.  These  biological  bequests,  these  habits  and 
inclinations  produced  by  the  accumulated  pains  and 
pleasures  of  remote  forefathers,  descend  to  those  who 
are  their  legatees  through  channels  which  science 
may  never  be  able  to  locate  or  explore.  They  have 
passed  out  of  the  brain,  the  blood,  the  nerve-ganglions, 

4 


34  TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION 

the  soul-histories  of  a  group  of  ancestors,  into  the 
germ-cells  of  an  uprising  posterity.  That  these  dis- 
connected elements  of  the  personality  should  be 
conveyed  from  the  forms  of  an  old  life  into  a  new  is 
a  fact  within  the  range  of  common  observation,  but 
the  laws  which  are  at  the  root  of  these  facts  are 
inscrutable.  This  transmission  of  mental  and  psychic 
attributes  is  not  one  whit  easier  of  explanation  than 
the  doctrine,  that  the  pre-existent  personality  of  the 
Son  of  God  should  come  into  the  babe  at  Bethlehem, 
manifest  itself  through  the  public  ministry  of  our 
Lord,  and  remain  indissolubly  united  to  the  form  that 
was  nailed  to  the  cross.  Perhaps  the  biological 
problem  involved  in  the  scientific  doctrine  of  heredity 
is  more  difficult  than  that  which  is  raised  by  the 
theological  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.  That  the 
seed  of  some  tropical  plant  should  be  drifted  to  our 
shores  by  tides  and  currents,  marked  on  no  nautical 
chart,  is  more  wonderful  than  the  feat  of  a  skilled 
collector  who  brings  a  perfect  plant  and  acclimatises 
it  to  our  soil.  That  two  or  three  of  the  pearls  or 
jewels  from  some  tiara,  should  be  washed  up  on  to 
the  beach,  is  perhaps  less  probable  than  that  all  the 
pearls  and  jewels  wrought  into  some  specific  design 
should  be  brought  across  the  sea  in  a  treasure-chest. 
The  preacher  of  heredity  claims  that  without  the 
attendant  synthesis  of  the  personality,  the  discon- 
nected attributes  of  the  personality  find  their  way 
into  the  life-shapes  of  a  new  generation.  The 
preacher  of  the  Incarnation  claims  that,  through 
the  unknown  grace  and  power  of  God,  the  unifying 
consciousness,  and  the  complete  circle  of  attributes 
belonging  to  a  Divine  personality,  have  come  into 
a  human  form. 


TESTED   BY   THE    INCARNATION  35 

The  analogy  of  biological  inheritance  may  carry 
us  a  further  step  towards  the  mystery  of  the 
Incarnation.  The  Incarnation  would  be  a  logical 
impossibility  if  it  involved  no  self-limitation  on  the 
part  of  the  Eternal  Son,  for  the  infinite  can  only 
unite  itself  to  the  finite  by  a  process  which  the 
theologian  describes  as  depotentiation.  The  Divine 
attributes  become  quiescent  capacities  rather  than 
active  and  effectual  functions  through  the  earlier 
stages  in  the  development  and  manifestation  of 
the  God-Man.  And  does  not  the  common  law  of 
heredity  work  in  this  particular  way  ?  The  inherited 
aptitudes  of  the  child  lie  dormant  for  years.  It  is 
only  through  the  discipline  of  training,  and  the 
stimulants  furnished  by  the  environing  society  within 
which  the  child  grows,  that  ancestral  gifts,  latent 
in  brain  and  blood,  rise  into  conscious  activity  and 
impressive  manifestation. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  our  theological  teachers 
that  Creation  itself,  especially  that  part  of  it  which 
brought  moral  and  intelligent  beings  upon  the  stage, 
involved  an  act  of  self-limitation  in  the  Infinite  God. 
He  could  not  continue  to  use  powers  and  preroga- 
tives made  over  as  a  perpetual  trust  to  men  fashioned 
in  His  image,  or  could  only  put  behind  and  beneath 
those  momentous  endowments,  the  reserve  rights  of 
final  control  belonging  to  His  inalienable  sovereignty. 

God's  past  revelations  to  seers,  prophets,  and 
righteous  men,  implied  a  process  of  momentary 
depotentiation,  as  does  the  act  of  every  learned 
man  who  takes  a  child  by  the  hand  and  tells  him 
a  fairy  tale  with  a  wholesome  moral.  The  scholar 
could  not  meet  the  mind  of  the  child  unless,  for 
the  time    being,   he    put    his  own  accomplishments 


36  TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION 

out  of  view.  In  all  those  disclosures  of  truth 
destined  to  emerge  from  God's  fellowships  with 
men,  a  principle  of  self-limitation  is  implied,  for 
the  infinite  cannot  be  exhaustively  known.  The 
more  permanent  self-limitation,  to  which  the 
Eternal  Son  submitted  Himself  when  He  became 
man,  was  anticipated  within  the  Divine  mind  itself, 
and  by  the  Son  in  that  life  which  preceded  His 
sojourn  upon  earth.  His  essential  attributes  were  em- 
ployed in  subordination  to  the  will  of  the  Father  and 
the  restrictive  laws  of  the  corporeal  order  into  which 
He  afterwards  came  were  symbols  of  the  sovereign 
will  to  which  He  bowed.  All  the  normal  powers  of 
His  humanity  He  put  forth  without  any  special 
and  immediate  direction  from  the  Divine  Father  in 
heaven,  for  pure  and  untainted  natural  instincts 
counselled  Him  aright  in  the  common  events  of  life. 
But  His  latent  supernatural  endowments  were  only 
used  in  response  to  the  call  of  the  Father,  as  that 
call  made  itself  known  in  His  life  of  continuous, 
illuminating  prayer.  That  the  Son  should  have 
emptied  Himself,  and  should  have  continued  to 
do  so  through  His  career  of  redemptive  service, 
was  in  harmony  with  the  Divine  action  of  the  past, 
and  miraculous  chiefly  when  viewed  from  the  ethical 
standpoint. 

In  the  verse  before  us  the  Apostle  puts  peculiar 
stress  upon  the  reality  of  the  Incarnation.  Belief  in 
the  Gospel  of  the  Incarnation  may  be  neutralised  by 
imperfect  views  either  of  the  Divine,  or  of  the  human 
natures  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  John  was  writing 
his  Epistle  the  latter  would  seem  to  have  been  the 
dominant  peril  of  the  hour.  The  philosophy  which 
treats   the  senses  as  illusory,  and  the  worlds  which 


TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION  37 

they  explore  as  an  intangible  mirage,  a  philosophy 
adopted  b}-  Gautauma  Buddha  and  upheld  by  Theo- 
sophists  and  Christian  Science  people  at  the  present 
time,  was  not   unknown  in   the  districts    where   the 
Apostles    preached    and    founded    Churches.     Such 
notions,  always  current  in  the  East  in  varying  forms, 
had    found    their   way   into   some   of  the   primitive 
Christian   communities,  and   as  soon  as  the   Divine 
Sonship  of  Jesus  Christ  was  accepted  and  confirmed, 
began  to  dilute  the  doctrine  and  empty  it  of  spiritual 
virtue.     It  was  a  phase  of  the  old  unbelief,  working 
under  the  formulas  of  an  Oriental  metaphysic,  which 
tended  to  take  away  the  substance  of  the  Incarnation 
and  leave  in  its  place  a  tenuous  shadow.     How  could 
God  suffer  ?     Was  He   not  in    His  essential  nature 
above  the   possibilities    of  pain    and    distress?     He 
might  perchance  come  to  earth  and  sojourn   in  its 
scenes,  but  could  scarcely  become  an  integral  part  of 
its  sensitive,  palpitating  life.     And  so  the  real,  inner- 
most Son  of  God  was  held  to  be  practically  separable 
from  the  bodily  form   with  which  He  was  invested. 
He  had  no  organic  union  with  the  sensibilities  of  the 
flesh,  making    Him    subject   to    shame,  humiliation, 
and  bitter  pain.     In  some  vague,  indefined  way  the 
Incarnation  was  apparitional — apparitional  through  a 
longer. term  of  time  than  other  superhuman  manifes- 
tations.    The  Eternal   Son   was   as    superior   to    the 
vicissitudes  and  desolations  of  this  earthly  lot  as  the 
shining   messengers  who  came  to  the  patriarchs  at 
their  tent-doors,  appeared  to  Jewish  peasants  of  the 
olden    days    at  their    threshing-floors,    or    filled    the 
courts   of    the    Temple    for    a    moment    with    their 
flaming  glory.     The  Spirit  of  the  Divine  Son  came 
down   to  enshrine    Himself  within  a  sinless   young 


38  TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION 

carpenter  from  Nazareth  when   He  was  baptized  in 
the  Jordan,  wrought  mightily  by  His  hand   through 
many  days  of  miraculous  power  and  triumph,  and 
before  the  abysmal  abandonment  of  the  Cross,  with- 
drew from  the  quivering,  tortured  flesh.     A  recently 
discovered  fragment  of  the  Gospels,  in  its  description 
of   the    Passion,    bears    upon    its     phraseology    the 
trace  of  this  old    Nestorian  heresy.     The    Apostle 
John  felt  that  such  a  notion  emptied  the  redeeming 
ministry   of    significance   and    made   it   a    piece   of 
Olympian  stage-magic.     If  God  did  not  truly  suffer 
in  His  Son,  the  coming  of  Jesus  into  the  world  could 
be  no  real  revelation  of  Divine  love.    God  had  drawn 
near  to  human  life  as  a  phantasmal  visitant  rather 
than   as  the  friend,  the  kinsman,  the  Saviour  of  an 
accursed  race.     To  affirm   the   perfect  humanity  of 
Jesus  was  vital,  and  the  rest  of  the  Gospel  story  could 
have  no  significance,  if  sundered  from  this  foundation. 
In   the  Peninsular  War,  the   Duke  of  Wellington 
was  greatly  vexed  and  embarrassed  by  the  fact,  that 
his  soldiers  were  accustomed  to  pillage  the  farms  and 
the  houses  of  the  peasantry.     To  stop  these  irregu- 
larities he  issued  an  order  that  the  next  soldiers  guilty 
of  such  lawlessness  should  be  hung.     The  following 
day  three  men  were  caught  red-handed  in  a  raid,  and 
the  cases  were  reported  to  the  commander  as  he  sat 
at  a  table  in  his  tent.     "  Take  the  men  out  and  hang 
them  on  the  nearest  tree,"  was  the  curt  reply.     The 
officers  entrusted  with  this   unpleasant  commission 
felt  sympathy  for  the  men  and  wished,  if  possible, 
to   avoid    carrying  out  a  sentence  so  harsh.     Three 
men  had  died  in  the  hospital  the  previous  night,  so 
the  ingenious  subterfuge  was  adopted  of  taking  the 
corpses   and   hanging   them    from    the   branches   of 


TESTED   BY  THE   INCARNATION  39 

a  tree,  past  which  the  troops  were  to  be  marched  in 
the  course  of  the  morning.  The  habit  of  raiding  the 
peasantry  was  effectually  stopped  by  this  stage-spec- 
tacle of  justice.  If  the  soldiers  had  found  out  that 
they  had  been  played  upon  by  a  make-believe 
penalty,  the  lawlessness  into  which  they  were  falling 
would  not  have  been  checked.  If  a  phantasmal  sub- 
stitute is  made  to  seem  to  suffer  for  the  guilty  race, 
the  sacrifice  can  have  no  virtue  either  before  God  or 
in  the  eyes  of  men.  If  Jesus  Christ  was  an  apparition 
of  the  glory  of  the  Divine  Son,  more  or  less  perma- 
nent, and  nothing  beyond,  if  statements  of  His 
Incarnation  were  to  be  qualified  by  the  idea  that  the 
real  Godhead  within  Him  could  not  suffer,  if  Jesus 
Christ  had  not  indeed  come  in  the  flesh  and  the 
Divinity  withdrew  itself  before  the  last  distress  and 
humiliation  overwhelmed  the  sufferer,  the  Cross  was 
a  hollow  symbol,  the  Gospel  based  upon  it  a  romance, 
and  the  ethic,  imposed  by  the  Apostles  upon  the 
Churches  they  founded  and  cherished,  must  have 
shrunk  into  an  impotent  counsel  of  perfection. 

St.  John  affirms  that  the  heart-felt,  uncompromis- 
ing confession  that  Jesus  Christ  has  come  in  the  flesh 
bears  a  significant  and  unmistakable  imprint  of  its 
origin.  The  spirit  who  inspires  such  an  avowal  is  a 
messenger  from  God  and  the  voice  of  every  spirit, 
within  ourselves  or  within  others,  which  thus  speaks, 
we  may  venture  to  trust  without  doubt  or  reserve. 
The  tribute  paid  to  the  superhuman  rank  of  Jesus 
by  an  evil  spirit  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum  : 
"  We  know  Thee,  who  Thou  art,  the  Holy  One  of 
God,''  and  at  once  repressed  with  stern,  holy  indig- 
nation, was  a  revived  form  of  the  temptation  in  the 
wilderness.     It  suggested  sovereignty  over  the  world 


40  TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION 

by  compromise.  The  confession  was  a  cunning 
flattery  which  passed  by  the  essential  ethic  of  the 
Incarnation  and  ignored  its  need.  No  spirit  of  evil 
could  conceive  and  applaud  the  stupendous  act  of 
self-humiliation  involved  in  the  work  of  Our  Lord 
amongst  men.  It  is  possible  to  ascribe  Divine 
attributes  to  Jesus,  to  call  him  God  with  a  pagan 
latitude  in  the  use  of  the  word,  and  yet  to  pass  by 
the  profoundest  truth  at  the  root  of  His  sojourn 
amongst  the  guilty  children  of  earth. 

The  difficulties  of  this  momentous  subject  are 
moral  rather  than  scientific,  and  grow  up  out  of  the 
weakness  and  rapacious  egoisms  of  our  fallen  nature. 
Incredulity  in  presence  of  this  sublime  fact  is  a 
symptom  of  selfishness  and  unconquerable  pride. 
To  the  tribe  which  is  in  the  habit  of  abandoning  its 
sick,  its  aged,  its  infirm,  the  story  of  the  palatial 
homes  in  which  we  cherish  hopeless  victims  of 
disease  is  incredible.  Such  charities  are  without 
parallel  in  the  customs  of  the  forest  or  the  prairie. 
Why  prolong  life  when  it  can  add  nothing  to  the 
fighting  strength  and  efficiency  of  the  tribe  ?  The 
names  of  George  MuUer  of  Bristol,  and  Dr.  Barnardo 
of  Stepney,  represent  mere  fictions  to  the  populations 
where  infanticide  is  common  and  involves  no  shame. 
The  practice  of  centuries  must  be  reversed,  and  a  new 
set  of  precedents  established  before  the  reports  of 
such  work  can  be  believed.  An  inhospitable  nation 
which,  whilst  caring  to  some  little  extent  for  its  own 
subjects,  admits  no  responsibility  for  tending  the 
subjects  of  other  nations,  is  moved  with  frenzied 
suspicion  and  invents  monstrous  slanders,  when  the 
foreigner  builds  a  hospital  and  seeks  to  care  for 
those  who  are  not  of  his  own  flesh  and  blood.     Our 


TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION  41 

natural  selfishness,  together  with  the  notions  begotten 
of  it,  cause  us  to  stumble  when  the  truth  of  the 
Incarnation  is  first  presented  to  us,  and  our  disinclina- 
tion to  receive  it  can  only  be  overborne  by  a  gift  from 
God,  which  removes  the  evil  bias  of  age-long  growth. 
Within  the  modest  limits  of  your  daily  life  practise 
the  humility  of  the  Incarnation,  and  you  will  make 
yourself  ready  for  a  less  hesitating  faith  in  it. 
Repeat  the  Christian  Creed  and  at  the  same  time 
hunt  for  rank,  position,  luxury,  the  trappings  of 
wealth,  popular  applause,  and  you  will  have  no 
inkling  of  the  grand  truth  uttered  with  the  lips. 
It  is  easier  for  a  philanthropist  to  believe  in  the 
Gospel  than  for  a  miser,  because  he  is  proving  daily 
that  "  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive  " — an 
ethical  axiom  which  is  the  key  to  the  interpretation 
of  God  and  His  dispensations  of  grace.  No  nature 
but  that  which  is  God-inspired  and  God-renewed  can 
embrace  the  Gospel  with  unreserved  sincerity.  Taste 
the  sweetness  of  humility  and  self-sacrifice  so  that 
your  faith  in  a  Divine  Saviour  may  be  no  longer 
staggered.  Count  yourself  less  than  the  least  of  the 
poor,  mean,  stricken  members  of  the  human  race, 
and  then  half  the  difficulties  which  surround  the 
subject  of  the  Incarnation  will  disappear. 

Our  belief  in  the  Incarnation  is  part  of  our  belief 
in  God's  love,  and  is  established  and  vindicated  by 
that  pregnant,  essential  truth  which  is  at  the  heart  of 
all  things.  The  doctrine,  it  is  sometimes  said,  is  a 
product  of  human  pride.  But  man  must  be  a  pheno- 
menal egotist  to  believe,  of  his  own  free  intent,  that 
God  takes  upon  Himself  human  flesh  for  our  redemp- 
tion and  dwells  with  us.  If  the  doctrine  originated 
in  human  pride  it  would  not  have  furnished  the  most 


42  TESTED    BY   THE    INCARNATION 

crushing  rebuke  the  idolatry  of  self  has  ever  received, 
giving  at  the  same  time  to  humility  a  sanction  that 
virtue  has  at  no  time  possessed  away  from  the  manger 
and  the  Cross.  In  the  Incarnation  we  see  God's 
scorn  of  that  grandiose  pretence  to  which  we  are  so 
prone.  It  is  not  in  human  nature  to  invent  such  a 
satire  upon  worldly  pomps  and  the  insanities  of  our 
self-exaltation  as  this  doctrine  presents. 

It  is  not  the  question  of  the  Virgin  Birth,  or  the 
union  of  Divine  and  human  natures  in  one  person, 
which  staggers  our  understanding ;  but  the  ethical 
magnitude  of  the  fact.  Let  this  central  problem 
settle  itself,  and  the  problems  which  are  incidental 
to  it  will  disappear.  Did  the  great  God  will  to  be- 
come man  and  to  die  for  the  race?  Your  nature 
must  be  renewed  into  unselfishness  so  that  you  may 
receive  this  tremendous  truth.  You  may  adopt  the 
dogma  upon  a  basis  of  authority,  whilst  the  heart  is 
at  the  same  time  unchanged,  with  the  result  that  all 
the  accumulated  pride  and  selfishness  of  your  unre- 
generate  years  will  rise  in  revolt  and  secretly  protest 
that  it  is  incredible. 


Ill 

THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 
"But  emptied  Himself."— Phil.  ii.  7  (R.V.). 

Amateur  students  of  Comparative  Religion  have 
sometimes  said  that  the  stories  of  the  Nativity 
gathered  up  into  the  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and 
St.  Luke  are  offshoots  from  an  old-world  myth, 
which  had  mixed  itself  up  with  the  traditions  of 
Jesus  before  His  biography  had  been  committed  to 
writing.  Elaborate  essays  have  set  out  to  prove  that 
the  Incarnation  Story  is  either  the  revival  of  an  early 
sun-fable  or  perhaps  a  Jewish  adaptation  of  one  of 
the  avatar  legends  of  the  East. 

It  is  true  the  date  of  the  Nativity  falls  in  close 
proximity  to  the  winter  solstice  ;  but  no  stress  can 
be  put  upon  such  a  coincidence  when  we  remember 
that  the  Nature-worship  resting  upon  these  myths, 
never  concerned  itself  with  the  ethical  problems 
which  received  their  paramount  expression  in  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.  It  is  not 
inconceivable,  moreover,  that  the  early  Church 
may  have  found  it  expedient  to  fit  some  of  its 
festivals  into  the  holidays  observed  by  Pagan  neigh- 
bours. 

43 


44  THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 

The  second  objection  raised  loses  its  apparent 
relevance  when  we  remember  that  the  Gospel  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  has  essential  characteristics,  to 
which  neither  analogy  nor  parallel  can  be  found  in 
the  religious  history  of  mankind.  The  Fatalism  of 
the  East  makes  such  a  choice  as  is  set  forth  in  the 
words  of  the  Apostle  unthinkable.  Not  only  are  all 
the  rebirths,  with  which  Oriental  thought  deals, 
successive  phases  in  working  out  a  series  of  rigid 
sequences,  but  the  gods  themselves  assume  their 
positions  in  the  visible  Pantheon  by  a  necessity,  into 
which  it  is  as  little  possible  for  a  moral  choice  to 
enter,  as  into  the  stations  of  the  stars.  The  Incarna- 
tion, with  all  the  history  which  issued  from  it,  is  self- 
chosen.  In  no  system  of  Pagan  mythology  does  an 
essentially  spiritual  being  seek  a  fixed  earthly  incar- 
nation for  unselfish  and  vicarious  ends.  The  ideas 
which  underlie  the  New  Testament  language  upon 
this  subject  lack  any  touch  of  kinship  with  the  most 
daring  speculations  of  religious  dreamers.  The  Son 
took  upon  Himself  our  flesh,  not  because  He  was 
destined  to  such  humiliation,  or  because  it  belonged 
to  Him  in  His  elemental  origins  so  that  His  life  must 
needs  reach  thereby  its  highest  phases.  The  Incarna- 
tion implied  a  self-determined  disability,  and  He  did 
not  thereby  magnify  Himself.  So  that  He  might 
become  man  He  emptied  Himself.  Looked  at  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  angel  He  died  down  into  the 
babe.  This  was  perhaps  the  nearest  conception  im- 
mortal spirits  in  the  spheres  of  light  where  their  life 
centred  could  have  of  death — the  Eternal  Son  sinking 
down  from  the  power  and  majesty  of  His  first  estate 
into  the  helplessness  of  the  babe.  The  cradle- 
manger,   till  the  significance  of  this  self-humiliation 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  45 

was  interpreted  to  their  thought,  must  have  seemed 
Hke  an  entombment  of  Deity  amidst  scenes  of 
meanness  and  dishonour. 

The  Apostle  here  brings  before  us  two  separate 
illustrations  of  our  Lord's  humility.  The  first  great 
illustration  had  for  its  immediate  scene  the  presence 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  holy  angels  in  heaven  ;  the 
second  was  set  in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  courts 
of  Jerusalem,  in  an  olive  orchard  by  which  the 
Kidron  swept,  and  on  a  green  hill  near  by  the  city, 
where  in  the  midst  of  frenzied  and  unsympathising 
crowds  He  poured  out  His  holy  life. 

He  humbled  Himself  to  the  dim,  feeble  beginnings 
of  human  consciousness  and  was  born  a  babe,  and  in 
that  event  His  nature  was  shorn  of  the  glorious  attri- 
butes which  expressed  its  Divine  rank.  Having 
assumed  the  form  of  a  servant,  by  a  reiterated  act  of 
inexhaustible  condescension.  He  passed  into  a  more 
tremendous  abyss,  for  He  again  humbled  Himself  by 
accepting  the  lot  and  enduring  the  mortal  condemna- 
tion of  a  felon.  The  second  step  of  the  descent 
would  have  been  impossible  without  the  first,  since 
He  who  only  hath  immortality  cannot  die.  The  first 
was  the  starting-point  and  the  second  the  goal  of 
His  earthly  life,  and  those  who  transpose  prelude 
and  climax  by  resting  human  salvation  upon  the 
holy  Nativity  rather  than  upon  the  sacrifice  to  which 
it  led  up,  assume  that  the  providence  of  redemption 
worked  retrogressively  in  the  history  of  Jesus.  He 
bore  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  that  He  might  become 
an  offering  for  sin. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  say  which  act  of  humiliation  in- 
volved the  bitterer  distress  or  in  which  the  Saviour's 
condescending    love    reached    its    climax    of    more 


46  THE  SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 

effectual  grace.  Perhaps  it  was  a  more  poignant  lot 
to  sink  out  of  the  light,  power,  conscious  majesty  of 
heaven  into  the  meanness,  imprisonment,  restraining 
conditions,  sin-charged  atmospheres  of  earth  than,  after 
having  already  been  made  perfect  man,  to  die  back 
again  through  a  strange  ordeal  of  torture,  into  the 
hidden  glory  of  heaven.  The  sacrifice  of  the  Cross 
upon  earth  had  its  earnest  and  its  counterpart  in  that 
sacrifice  of  self-limitation  in  heaven,  which  was  the 
first  step  to  the  coming  Incarnation.  Perhaps  that 
was  the  shadow  in  heaven  by  which  angels  divined 
the  coming  tragedy  of  love  upon  earth. 

It  is  to  the  first  illustration  of  humility,  that  act  of 
self-effacement  in  heaven,  of  which  the  Father  and 
His  holy  angels  were  witnesses,  that  our  thoughts  are 
now  directed. 

"  Emptied  Himself."  This  implies  that,  in  the 
inscrutable  experiences  antecedent  to  the  Incarna- 
tion, the  Eternal  Son  was  a  free,  self-choosing,  re- 
sponsible actor.  At  no  time  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh  was  He  under  the  temptation  to  regard  Him- 
self as  a  victim  of  Fate.  We  find  ourselves  in  the 
world  by  the  choice  of  others,  and  when  the  storm  of 
its  gathering  distresses  bursts  upon  us,  like  Job  and 
Jeremiah,  we  may  feel  moved  to  curse  the  day  of  our 
birth,  and  the  Fate  which  permits  us  to  become  the 
poor,  dismantled  victims  of  catastrophe  and  defeat. 
But  Jesus  Christ  always  made  His  followers  see  that 
His  lot  of  obscurity  and  grievous  pain  was  self- 
selected,  and  that,  whilst  He  was  in  active  harmony 
with  His  Father's  Eternal  decree.  He  at  the  same 
time  was  following  out  the  counsel  of  His  own  un- 
fettered love.  It  is  true  some  passages  of  the  New 
Testament  speak  as  though  Jesus,  in  that  transition 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  47 

from  a  higher  to  a  lower  order  of  intelligent  being 
through  which  He  came  to  bear  our  similitude,  were 
a  passive  subject  only.  "  Made  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels."  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
amongst  us."  "The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon 
thee  and  the  power  of  the  Most  High  shall  over- 
shadow thee ;  wherefore  also  that  which  is  to  be 
born  shall  be  called  holy,  the  Son  of  God."  But 
before  the  Spirit,  whose  mystic  inbrooding  became  the 
creative  power  of  the  Incarnation,  received  this  per- 
sonality into  His  guardianship  and  blent  its  attri- 
butes with  our  flesh  and  blood,  the  Divine  Son  had 
already  humbled  Himself  and  surrendered  His  sacred 
life  to  the  will  of  this  unseen  minister  of  the  eternal 
mysteries.  This  acceptance  of  our  nature,  no  less 
than  the  suffering  of  the  Cross  itself,  must  be  self- 
chosen  if  it  is  to  have  virtue  for  the  help  and  salvation 
of  the  human  race.  That  the  self-abasement  was 
free  must  have  been  just  as  manifest  to  those  who 
witnessed  the  act  of  humiliation  in  heaven  whereby 
He  made  ready  to  take  upon  Himself  the  form  of  a 
servant,  as  to  those  who  contemplated  upon  earth  the 
events  which  led  up  to  the  unconstrained  sacrifice  of 
the  Cross.  From  the  first  scene  on  high,  when  He 
left  the  throne  of  His  majesty,  to  the  last  scene  below, 
when  He  yielded  His  hands  to  the  cords  and  bowed 
His  thorn-girt  brow  on  the  tree.  His  spirit  moved  in 
a  sphere  of  moral  self-determination  and  made  the 
series  of  closely  linked  events  an  incomparable  sacri- 
fice of  love.  There  was  no  strife  with  Fate,  no  anger 
at  His  lot,  no  imprisoning  coils ;  but  the  act  of  empty- 
ing Himself,  in  which  the  Incarnation  began,  was 
repeated  through  all  the  incidents  of  His  sojourn 
amongst  men. 


48  THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 

The  Gospel  has  its  source  in  our  Lord's  free  choice 
of  the  pains  and  privations  involved  in  an  Incarnate 
life,  and  Christianity  contains  no  gospel  apart  from 
this.     The  pre-existence  of  Jesus  Christ  is  sometimes 
rationalised    away   by   a    reference    to    the    eternal 
decrees.    "  Before  Abraham  was  I  am."    The  sinless, 
well-beloved  Son  was  an  ideal  in  the  Divine  mind 
when  the  worlds  were  not  yet  made.     Yes,  but  if  an 
ideal  only,  and  not  also  the  possessor  of  the  attri- 
butes of  a  complete  conscious  personality,  His  life  of 
humiliation  must  have  been  determined  by  a  Divine 
fate  or  destiny,  and  therefore  lacked  the  moral  virtue 
which  would  have  attached  to  it,  had  the  earthly  lot 
been  accepted  from  the  beginning  by  His  own  free 
act.     If  there  was  no  unconstrained  co-operation  with 
the  Father's  counsels   in  heaven    above,  as  well    as 
upon  earth  below,  and  His  birth,  work  and   sacrifice 
were  prepared  and  enforced   by  the   irresistible  will 
of  another,  it  is  idle  to  make  this  the  ground  of  an 
appeal  for  love   to   Jesus    Christ.     The  benefactors, 
who  brighten  and  enrich  our  lives,  win  a  sure  foot- 
hold in  our  love  by  what  they  do  for  us  in  the  heyday 
of  their  strength,  and  not  by  the  mere  fact  that  they 
have  come  into  the  world.     We  may  make  our  lives 
express  mercy  and  good-will  to  our  neighbours,  but 
we  cannot  imprint  any  such  significance  upon  our 
birth,    for   that    is    beyond    our    control.       William 
Wilberforce  and  Abraham  Lincoln  have  not  entitled 
themselves  to  the  praise  and  admiration  of  the  negro 
race  by  the  fact  that  they  consented  to  be  born,  but 
because  in  the  full  maturity  of  their  powers  they  set 
themselves  to  the  task  of  emancipation.    This  august 
being  held  a  pre-existent  life,  in  which  He  stripped 
off  the  glories  with  which  He  had  been   apparelled, 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  49 

suffered  His  primal  attributes  to  pass  into  eclipse,  and 
stooped  to  make  a  human  form  the  shrine  of  His 
Divine  personality.  The  Godhead,  which  was  His, 
passed  for  a  time  into  finite  conditions,  and  its 
transcendent  potentialities  became  latent  and  self- 
restrained.  He  entered  into  a  rank  lower  than  the 
angels. 

The  Divine  nature  must  accept  poignant  limita- 
tions before  an  Incarnation  becomes  possible.  Let 
us  face  the  facts  of  the  problem  with  a  courageous 
and  devout  intelligence.  How  often  is  language 
used  upon  this  sacred  subject  which  makes  the  truth 
a  jumbled  and  a  jarring  paradox !  A  crude  pulpit 
rhetoric  speaks  of  the  Omnipotence  that  slept  in  a 
manger,  of  the  baby  fingers  that  clasped  the  sceptre 
of  the  universe,  of  the  tiny  brain  that  held  the  secrets 
of  all  knowledge,  and  of  the  spell  of  mighty,  far- 
ranging  attributes  before  whose  subduing  presence 
shepherds  and  magi  were  drawn  to  pay  their  inevit- 
able homage.  Such  transcendent  powers  were  there, 
but  in  the  sense  only  in  which  the  strength  of  the 
timber  and  the  bounty  of  the  fruit  are  present  in  the 
seed.  The  Divine  nature  which  had  merged  itself 
with  the  human  could  not  at  once  convey  to  the 
little  shape  of  flesh,  in  the  encircling  arms  of  the 
Virgin,  the  noonday  splendour  of  its  own  active 
and  unqualified  attributes.  Matter  that  can  be 
weighed,  measured,  disintegrated  and  described  in 
finite  terms,  however  sublimated  the  form  into  which 
it  combines,  is  unfit  to  express  that  which  is  infinite 
in  the  integrity  of  its  deepest  essence.  There  are 
points  at  which  the  human  becomes  a  negation  of 
the  Divine  and  the  Divine  of  the  human,  although 
each  possesses  many  attributes  in  common  and  there 

5 


50  THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 

are  intimate  affinities  between  the  two.  The  Incar- 
nation could  only  take  place  upon  the  basis  of  a 
voluntary  self-limitation. 

For  the  elucidation  of  such  a  profound  subject 
it  is  impossible  to  find  exact  analogies,  but  the  new 
psychology  has  directed  our  attention  to  a  strange 
class  of  facts  which  are  an  improvement  upon  many 
of  the  older  illustrations.  It  would  be  rashness  to 
do  more  than  point  out  the  limits  between  which 
possible  explanations  may  lie.  Can  human  per- 
sonality find  within  its  unexplored  labyrinths  a  place 
where  Divine  attributes  may  slumber  for  a  time,  till 
at  last  they  emerge  into  consciousness  and  suffuse 
the  entire  life?  Within  recent  years  we  have  been 
compelled  to  study  the  wonderful  feats  of  the  un- 
conscious mind.  It  can  will  certain  acts  whilst  we 
are  not  in  the  least  aware  of  the  volitions  which  work 
within  us.  In  the  restless  economies  of  the  physical 
life  it  regulates  vital  processes  which  are  hidden 
away  from  us.  Antitoxins,  more  wonderful  than  any 
of  which  Pasteur  or  Koch  have  dreamed,  are  manu- 
factured by  its  skilful  art  to  combat  the  disease 
germs  which  invade  the  blood  ;  whilst  at  the  same 
time  it  relieves  perilous  pressures,  thickens  bony 
structures  when  there  is  the  risk  of  deformity  and 
breakdown,  provides  against  threatened  lesions  in 
veins  and  arteries,  and  repairs  disease  with  untiring 
cunning  and  consummate  patience.  A  writer  of  wide 
reputation  has  said,  "  I  believe  that  a  natural  power 
of  prevention  and  repair  of  disorder  and  disease  has 
as  real  and  as  active  an  existence  within  us  as  have 
the  ordinary  functions  of  the  organs  themselves." 
This  active,  intelligent  providence  in  the  body  was 
once  called  the  healing  strength  or  genius  of  nature. 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  ^i 

It  is  an  invisible  minister  of  repair  and  recuperation 
which  we  can  neither  see  nor  hear,  feel  nor  know. 
The  devout  man  will,  perhaps,  not  go  far  astray 
if  he  calls  it  the  immanent  and  effectual  benignity 
of  God  Himself,  or  of  Him  by  whom  God  made 
the  worlds.  Perhaps  psychologists  treat  it  as  an 
integral  part  of  the  human  personality,  because  it 
is  subject  to  perversion  and  morbid  derangement. 
And  yet  it  does  not  belong  to  the  conscious  man, 
although  there  is  close  sympathy  and  reciprocal 
action  between  the  two  halves  of  the  being.  Well, 
if  our  definitions  of  human  personality  must  find 
room  for  this  unconscious  providence,  greater  than 
the  self  we  know,  which  watches  over  the  welfare  of 
the  body,  can  it  not  also  find  room  for  the  Divine 
attributes  of  the  Son,  in  the  days  when  he  was  child 
and  youth  and  toiling  artisan,  and  His  superhuman 
knowledge  and  power  had  not  yet  emerged  into  full 
and  final  consciousness  ? 

Most  of  us  know  that  there  are  certain  chambers 
in  the  mind  to  which  we  hold  the  key.  We  can 
unlock  them  at  will  and  reproduce  past  events, 
memories  retained  from  our  earliest  training,  work- 
ing motives  necessary  for  us  in  the  round  of  daily 
life,  and  all  the  forces,  powers  and  impressions  which 
inhere  in  our  sense  of  personal  identity.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  unexplored  recesses  of  the 
mind  which  contain,  perhaps,  faded  lessons,  vague 
influences  which  permeated  our  unobservant  infancy, 
dim  reflections  of  ancestral  emotion,  perhaps  also 
the  influences  radiated  by  an  immanent  Deity  ;  and 
to  these  deeper  recesses  of  the  mind,  which  under 
peculiar  conditions  yield  up  their  secrets  to  the  light, 
we  possess  no  key.     This  shrouded  half  of  the  per- 


52  THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 

sonality  has  been  called  the  subliminal  consciousness. 
It  has  been  said  that  "  mind  may  be  conscious,  sub- 
conscious, or  unconscious.  The  second  state  may 
be  brought  into  consciousness  by  effort,  the  last 
cannot."  It  seems  to  me  that  during  the  opening 
days  of  His  youth  and  manhood,  our  Lord's  sense 
of  the  pre-existent  life  in  heaven  and  of  the  Divine 
attributes  which  belonged  to  Him,  must  have  been 
hidden  away  in  the  subliminal  consciousness.  At 
rare  intervals,  and  when  the  Father  expressly  willed 
it,  the  glory  of  the  Divine  Son  flashed  up  into  view  ; 
but  for  the  most  part  His  life  in  home  and  school, 
shop  and  synagogue  was  delimited  by  the  same 
frontiers  as  our  own. 

How  were  the  disparities  between  the  finite  and  the 
infinite,  the  human  and  the  Divine,  ultimately  recon- 
ciled in  one  undivided  being  ?  By  what  law  did 
they  interact  and  finally  coalesce  ?  It  is  impossible 
to  give  a  dogmatic  answer  to  the  question,  and  yet 
the  mind  will  persist  in  groping  after  solutions. 

Recent  researches  have  shown  us  that  human 
personality  sometimes  breaks  up  into  two  streams 
which  subsequently  merge  again.  Cases  are  not 
unknown  in  which,  after  shock,  accident  or  disease, 
memory  is  lost  for  a  time.  In  a  moment  the  stored- 
up  knowledge  and  the  highly  trained  powers  of 
the  past  vanish.  And  then  the  first  steps  in  educa- 
tion have  to  be  taken  once  more.  The  disabled 
thinker  must  sit  down  to  his  alphabet,  be  taught 
again  how  to  count,  add,  subtract,  and  multiply. 
When  the  processes  have  been  continued  for  weeks 
and  months  the  old  knowledge  has  flashed  back 
upon  the  consciousness  and  the  forgotten  past  has 
been  restored.     Trains   of  sleeping  ideas  have  been 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  53 


touched,  as  with  an  electric  current,  and  the  mind 
has  found  again  its  lost  resources  and  its  early  sense 
of  power. 

And  may  we  not,  perhaps,  trace  hints  of  a  corre- 
sponding process  in  the  life-history  of  Jesus?  Before 
making  His  abode  with  men  He  permits  His  im- 
measurable knowledge  to  be  bound  by  finite  restraints 
and  yields  up  His  stupendous  powers  to  narrow  con- 
ditions akin  to  those  which  circumscribe  our  own. 
His  spirit  once  free  to  diffuse  itself  at  will  through 
the  universe,  attaches  itself  to  a  rigid  local  centre, 
like  that  round  which  the  personality  of  a  normal 
human  being  revolves.  And  then  in  this  nature, 
which  had  thus  emptied  itself,  the  pathetic  methods 
of  a  natural  education  begin.  The  muscles,  stretched 
or  relaxed  by  a  meshwork  of  tiny  nerves,  have  to 
learn  their  uses  and  functions.  Through  many  a 
trivial  error  and  mishap  the  senses  grow  into  accuracy. 
The  first  ventures  into  the  new  sense-world  are  made 
and  the  first  steps  are  taken.  This  is  followed  by 
efforts  to  acquire  the  higher  elements  of  learning. 
He  "  grows  in  wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  in  favour 
with  God  and  man."  As  the  simple  processes, 
by  which  the  normal  faculties  of  the  mind  are 
trained,  advance  a  step  at  a  time,  strange  and  illimit- 
able memories  start  up  within  the  nature.  The  old 
wisdom  comes  back  in  flood-tides  from  unfathomable 
springs  of  mystery.  A  sense  of  unbounded  power 
thrusts  itself  up  into  the  mind  of  the  young  Galilean. 
The  subconscious  Godhead  asserts  its  forces  and 
takes  possession  of  the  area  of  the  entire  life.  The 
new  life  on  earth  joins  itself  by  an  unbroken  chain 
of  sequence  to  the  old  life  in  heaven,  for  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  come  upon    Him   to  unseal    His    Divine 


THE    SUBLIMINAL   GODHZa: 


senses.  The  attributes  of  the  Godhead  have  been 
secretly  present  under  a  human  fornL  But  in  the 
height  of  His  recovered  p>ower  He  empties  Himself 
again  and,  by  the  way  of  the  Cross,  passes  at  last 
to  the  sanctuary-,  from  which  He  had  descended  to 
represent  and  redeem  mankind. 

In  what  sense  did  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God 
possess  Divine  attributes,  if  the\-  were  hidden  away 
beneath  the  level  of  His  normal  consciousness  as  a 
member  of  the  human  race  ?  His  realisation  of  the 
transcendent  powers  which  .  tr-  His  birthright,  and 
the  assertion  of  those  powers  in  supematura'  acts 
was  self-inhibited.  Can  we  not  trace  this 
the  three  scenes  of  the  temptation  in  the  wi  z  : 

By  acts  of  daily  self-repression  the  Divine  ~  -,  of 
His  nature  was  concealed  not  only  from  others,  but 
even  from  Himself,  and  this  self-repression  was  the 
law  of  His  redemptive  life.  It  was  thus  He  fulfilled 
all  righteousness.  The  commander  of  a  fleet  who 
puts  out  to  sea  with  sealed  orders  in  his  keeping  is  in 
a  different  position  from  the  private  citizen  who  stands 
outside  the  circle  of  State  secrets.  The  knowledge 
upon  which  so  much  depends  is  moment  by  moment 
within  his  grasp,  and  it  is  his  loyalty  to  the  Cro¥ra 
which  kee{)s  him  from  breaking  the  seals  of  the 
secrets  entrusted  to  him,  till  the  appointed  hour. 
Superhuman  wisdom  and  power  were  within  reach 
of  the  only-begotten  Son  befirt  the  days  of  His 
baptism  and  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  who  led  Him 
forth  to  His  redemptive  vocation.  But  it  was  of  the 
essence  of  His  righteousness  that  He  should  wait  for 
the  Father's  bidding  and  do  nothing  of  Himself. 
This  Divine  consciousness  was  unsealed  by  the  Spirit 
which  came  from  the  Father  anew  to  possess  Him 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  55 

for  His  work.  After  entering  human  flesh  and  going 
forth  to  preach  in  the  towns  and  villages  of  Galilee, 
He  continued  man,  not  by  the  pressure  of  an 
irresistible  hand  from  without,  but  by  His  free  sub- 
mission to  the  common  conditions  of  those  whom  He 
was  sent  to  save.  When  the  sense  of  Divine  attributes 
revived  within  Him  He  went  on  emptying  Himself, 
till  at  the  height  of  His  earthly  career,  the  humiliation 
by  which  He  became  man  asserted  itself  in  a  new 
form  and  He  bowed  himself  to  death,  even  the  death 
of  the  Cross. 

The  death  to  which  He  devoted  Himself  would  have 
been  impossible,  as  a  human  experience,  apart  from 
that  laying  aside  of  His  glory  by  which  it  was  pre- 
ceded. If  a  vicarious  sacrifice  was  indeed  the  goal  of 
His  earthly  mission  no  hands  could  have  bound  and 
slain  the  victim,  still  His  outshining  Godhead  had 
been  subdued  bv  the  softening^  veil  of  the  flesh.  The 
glory  of  His  untempered  attributes  had  power 
to  disarm  all  adversaries  and  bar  out  the  Cross 
and  its  humiliations.  To  the  light  in  which  He 
once  dwelt  no  man  could  draw  nigh,  and  the  eclipse 
of  that  light  was  the  first  condition  necessar>'  to 
His  atoning  passion.  Whilst  traces  of  the  majestic 
transfiguration  lingered  upon  His  form  violence 
was  kept  at  bay.  The  fourth  Evangelist  tells  how 
the  quick,  irrepressible  outflash  of  His  majesty  awed 
into  helplessness  the  ruflfian  bands  sent  to  arrest  Him 
in  the  garden.  The  same  impression  of  inviolable 
dignity  was  conveyed,  though  in  less  intense  degree, 
as  He  sat  teaching  in  the  Temple,  and  those  charged  to 
bring  Him  before  the  priests  and  rulers  returned  with- 
out their  captive.  If  when  the  sun  of  His  celestial 
life  had  set  in  the  Incarnation,  the  after-glow  of  His 


56  THE   SUBLIMINAL  GODHEAD 

splendour  was  so  irresistible,  what  effect  would  have 
been  produced  by  its  noonday  brightness  ?  With  a 
charmed  life  He  would  have  glided  through  the  world, 
whilst  the  mercenaries  of  the  Crucifixion  would  have 
been  as  helpless  as  Saul  wallowing  at  the  gates  of 
Damascus.  Needless  then  the  early  flight  into  Egypt, 
for  the  murderer  of  the  Innocents  would  have  been 
overawed.  Caiaphas,  Pilate,  Herod,  the  centurion 
charged  with  the  execution  and  his  four  soldiers, 
would  have  been  smitten  with  an  impotence  like  that 
of  the  guards  on  the  morning  of  the  Resurrection. 
The  assumption  of  flesh  and  blood,  through  which 
He  became  perfect  man  identified  with  the  brethren 
He  was  to  save,  put  Him  within  the  power  of  His 
enemies.  His  death  was  made  possible  by  a  prepara- 
tory act  of  depotentiation.  "He  emptied  Himself"  to 
bring  His  holy  life  within  reach  of  those  who  took  it 
by  violence,  and  became  unwitting  contributories  to 
the  great  mystery  of  redemption.  The  glory  which 
He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  unless  obscured,  would  have  created  conditions 
making  His  life  as  inviolable  as  when  surrounded  by 
cohorts  of  angels  ;  and  He  laid  it  aside. 

The  act  described  in  this  singular  phrase  was  neces- 
sary, for  lacking  a  perfect  humanity,  the  offering  up 
of  His  life  upon  the  Cross  for  all  men,  would  have 
been  the  formality  of  a  sacrifice,  lacking  the  true 
virtue  of  vicarious  pain. 

The  experiences  we  associate  with  death  are  in- 
compatible with  the  conscious  and  plenary  possession 
of  all  Divine  attributes  at  the  awful  crisis.  Robert 
Buchanan  expresses  the  core  of  the  truth,  with  more 
or  less  of  irreverent  exaggeration,  when  he  says  :  "  To 
my   mind    Christ   did   not    experience    the   ordinary 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  57 

sufferings  of  man  if  He  claimed  to  be  more  than 
man.  In  other  words,  His  Divine  claim  quite  destroys 
His  power  of  suffering  or  sacrifice."  There  is  a  third 
view,  however,  left  out  of  sight  in  that  criticism.  In- 
finite strength,  unless  held  in  abeyance,  is  a  bar  not 
only  to  suffering,  but  to  that  separation  of  the  spirit 
from  the  body  in  which  life  ceases.  Almighty  attri- 
butes in  league  with  the  self-defensive  instinct  of  a 
robust  humanity  makes  a  panoply  through  which  no 
stab  of  mortal  pain  can  pass.  The  extraordinary 
power  of  abstraction  possessed  by  some  men  brings 
exemption  from  many  of  the  ills  which  fall  upon 
their  fellows.  The  strong  faith  of  the  Stoic  in  the 
supremacy  of  mind  over  matter  often  works  wonders. 
With  a  proud  mandate  he  can  dismiss  from  the  sphere 
of  the  senses  the  more  extreme  forms  of  distress, 
and  rob  torment  of  its  worst  sting.  Much  more  could 
a  will  clothed  with  Almighty  power  accomplish  the 
same  end  and  make  the  Man  of  Sorrows  an  unsub- 
stantial phantom.  It  was  only  by  divesting  Himself 
of  His  prerogatives  and  becoming  perfect  man, 
with  a  man's  physical  frailties,  that  the  Son  of  God 
could  die. 

If  through  the  hours  of  the  Passion,  His  conscious 
presence  had  outflown  the  limits  set  by  the  bodily 
senses,  the  Cross  would  have  been  no  burden,  and  its 
shame  and  torment  no  crushing  tragedy.  Speaking 
with  Nicodemus,  the  great  Teacher  affirmed  that 
though  come  down  from  heaven  there  was  a  sense  in 

o 

which  He  was  still  in  heaven.  His  thought,  know- 
ledge, affection  returned  day  by  day  to  the  primal 
centre  from  which  His  life  issued.  He  counted  in  its 
counsels,  knew  its  secrets,  asserted  the  virtue  of  His 
mediatorial  personality  in  its  decrees.     But  the  pene- 


58  THE   SUBLIMINAL    GODHEAD 

tration  of  His  presence  into  realms  on  high  had 
changed  in  form.  He  was  not  there  in  the  same 
sense  as  when  Prince  of  its  shining  hosts.  He  kept 
Himself  in  a  locaHsed  Hfe  of  redemptive  humihation 
by  a  holy  act  of  will,  renouncing  for  the  time  His 
more  majestic  attributes.  If  He  had  transported 
Himself,  at  every  natural  impulse,  to  that  sanctuary  in 
which  no  violence  was  found,  and  actively  exercised 
that  transcendence  over  space-limits  which  was  His 
birthright.  He  could  only  have  died  a  stage-death. 
Nothing  but  an  unsuffering  shadow  could  have  been 
nailed  to  the  tree.  His  life  is  to  be  made  a  genuine 
offering  for  sin,  and  the  orbit  of  its  conscious  activities 
must  therefore  be  narrowed  to  humbler  dimensions 
than  even  that  of  the  far-ranging  angels. 

To  die, as  a  man  the  consciousness  must  be  with- 
drawn from  the  vastness  of  illimitable  time,  and  pass 
into  such  purely  finite  conditions  that  the  momentshall 
contain  and  confine  it.  The  Son  of  God  had  lived  in 
a  magnificent  past,  and,  by  the  force  of  His  mysteri- 
ous foreknowledge,  had  lived  also  in  a  no  less  magni- 
ficent future  ;  but  till  He  drew  His  first  earthly  breath 
He  had  never  been  a  being  of  the  passing  day  only, 
unless  by  a  process  of  intellectual  accommodation. 
And  yet  if  He  is  now  truly  to  offer  His  soul  to  the 
Father  in  death.  He  must  empty  Himself  and  be 
clothed  with  the  attributes  of  time  rather  than  with 
the  powers  of  eternity.  Gleams  of  the  larger  pre- 
incarnate  life,  it  is  true,  hover  within  the  shrouded 
depths  of  His  personality,  gleams  prophetic  also  of 
His  coming  enthronement  and  victory,  but  they  are 
gleams  only,  and  not  the  clear,  strong,  steady  shining 
of  the  Divine  prescience  through  the  whole  round  of 
the  horizon.     He  could  only  suffer  by  being  shut  up 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  59 

within  the  moment  and  feeling  the  impact  of  the 
terrible  experiences  coincident  with  it.  If  the  light 
of  eternity  past  had  mingled  freely  with  the  light 
of  eternity  to  be,  flooding  even  the  scenes  of  the 
Cross  and  driving  away  its  shadows,  He  could  have 
had  no  sense  of  the  hiding  of  the  Father's  face 
because  of  the  sin-burden  which  He  bore.  That 
brief,  inscrutably  awful  interval  of  desolation  could 
have  had  no  foothold  in  His  consciousness.  He  must 
lay  aside  Divine  wisdom  if  He  is  to  taste  the  bitter 
and  unutterable  verity  of  death.  "  He  emptied  Him- 
self" By  no  other  method  could  He  prepare  Himself 
for  all  that  lay  before  Him  as  the  Saviour  of  a  fallen 
race,  perfected  through  suffering. 

For  one  of  infinite  knowledge  death  is  disarmed  of 
its  common  terrors,  and  it  is  inconceivable  that  he 
should  taste  its  uttermost  sadness.  It  is  the  unknown 
element,  rather  than  the  pain  attending  the  exodus  of 
the  soul,  which  affrights  and  overshadows.  The  man 
who  has  conquered  large  domains  of  knowledge  and 
commands  them  at  will,  has  an  inward  city  of  refuge 
to  which  he  can  flee  from  nine-tenths  of  the  ills 
harassing  his  comrades.  When  it  so  pleases  him  he 
can  divert  himself  with  the  ideas  and  sensibilities 
appropriate  to  another  sphere.  In  the  midst  of  irk- 
some and  depressing  environments  he  can  lock  himself 
in  with  ideal  interests  which  engross  and  captivate 
his  heart.  Many  men  have  discovered  in  books  a 
wonderful  immunity  from  the  wounds  and  heart-aches 
of  the  world.  Each  page  exhales  an  anodyne,  and 
they  pass  swiftly  out  of  the  desert  to  belts  of  fruit- 
trees  and  lie  down  by  waters  of  refreshment.  The 
poet,  the  historian,  the  naturalist,  or  the  writer  of 
romance  leads  the  soul  from  the  angry  turmoil  into 


6o  THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 


new  and  healing  atmospheres.  In  art,  music,  and 
science,  a  sweet  forgetfulness  of  bereavement,  stifling 
solitude,  and  the  gnawings  of  cruel  disease  is  often 
found.  A  man  can  get  away  from  himself  when  hard- 
bestead  if  his  mind  has  been  enlarged  into  liberal 
culture  and  his  range  of  knowledge  widened.  In 
how  unlimited  a  degree  must  this  be  true  for  one 
who  can  traverse  at  will  realms  of  boundless  know- 
ledge, so  escaping  the  distresses  of  the  passing 
hour.  Our  Lord  retained  enough  of  His  original 
power  to  assure  His  disciples  that  His  attributes 
were  superhuman,  and  His  birth  was  not  as  that 
of  other  men.  But  though  this  was  so,  He  could 
not  have  suffered  death  for  us  unless,  He  had  con- 
sented to  forego  for  a  time  His  infinite  know- 
ledge and  take  the  form  of  a  servant.  If  by 
transporting  Himself  into  fresh  domains  as  He  hung 
upon  the  Cross,  He  had  changed  the  centre  of  His 
consciousness.  His  redeeming  passion  would  have 
been  void,  and  lacked  power  of  appeal  to  the  heart 
of  either  God  or  man. 

But  all  theories  of  the  way  in  which  the  Divine 
and  human  natures  were  harmonised  in  the  history 
and  personal  consciousness  of  Jesus  Christ  are,  to 
some  extent,  subjects  with  which  the  intellect  is 
exercised,  whilst  the  matchless  humility  and  love 
set  forth  in  the  self-limitation  of  the  Incarnate  Son 
appeal  to  the  conscience  and  the  character.  Herein 
love  reached  a  manifestation  which  exceeds  the 
noblest  of  human  experiences.  A  renunciation  of 
the  highest  powers  and  functions  of  the  personality 
implies  a  more  stringent  sacrifice  than  the  mere  sur- 
render of  possessions.  The  most  tenacious  millionaire, 
when  put  to  the   test,  is  more  ready  to  give  up  his 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  6i 

treasures  than  to  cast  aside  his  wisdom  or  submit  to 
the  eclipse  of  his  facuhies.  Wit,  learning,  intellectual 
strength  and  resource  set  forth  the  inherent  dignity  of 
human  nature,  whilst  wealth  is  a  symbol  of  adventi- 
tious power,  and  to  surrender  the  inherent  is  pro- 
portionately hard.  We  speak,  and  rightly  speak,  of 
one  who,  "  though  rich,  for  our  sakes  became  poor  "  ; 
but  the  homage,  worship  and  service,  which  encircled 
Him  in  the  place  where  He  reigned,  were  the  ac- 
cessories of  His  lot,  rather  than  attributes  of  His 
person  ;  and  to  surrender  these  things  was  unspeak- 
ably less  than  the  self-limitation  into  which  He  passed 
for  our  sakes.  The  glory  which  He  had  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  consisted  in  the  ineffable 
attributes  which  clothed  Him,  and  when  an  essentially 
majestic  nature  accepts  mortal  limitations  it  is  the 
crowning  achievement  of  humility.  For  a  high- 
minded  man  to  empty  himself  is  the  severest 
sacrifice  to  which  he  can  be  called.  Who  would 
not  rather  cast  away  the  best  of  his  possessions 
than  suffer  the  faculties  of  his  spirit  to  be  immured 
within  constricted  ranges  ?  Let  riches  go  rather  than 
hearing,  eyesight,  power  of  wide  movement,  and  let 
the  senses  themselves  be  atrophied  rather  than  that  a 
single  faculty  of  the  mind  should  fail !  Men  dread 
the  partial  blotting  out  of  the  consciousness  more 
than  they  dread  pain.  A  weird  repulsion  seizes  us 
when  we  find  the  memory  fading  out,  the  power  of 
clear  argument  sinking  away,  the  capacity  for  under- 
standing and  intelligent  action  breaking  down.  The 
man  who  has  roamed  at  will  through  all  the  zones 
of  the  earth  finds  himself  at  length  the  captive  of 
disease  looking  out  from  a  little  casement  ;  the  light 
fails  for  the  artist  who  has  painted  nobly  or  dreamed 


62  THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD 

of  it  ;  the  accomplished  musician  loses  the  sense  of 
touch  ;  the  statesman  who  has  dominated  a  nation 
must  find  his  poor  empire  in  a  sick-room.  This  putting 
off,  this  self-divesting  ordeal,  this  pouring-out  like 
waste  water  upon  the  ground  of  the  most  splendid 
gifts  of  genius  is  a  pathetic  experience,  which  men  in 
the  full  flower  of  their  strength  scarcely  understand. 

All  such  illustrations  of  this  act  of  self-renunciation 
are  faint  in  outline  and  scant  in  meaning.  The  self- 
emptying  of  which  the  Apostle  speaks  was  the 
exchange  of  eternal  strength  for  mortal  weakness, 
all-comprehending  wisdom  for  a  child's  pittance  of 
knowledge,  an  illimitable  presence  for  the  space- 
bounds  of  a  human  form,  the  sublime  immensity  of 
Divine  attributes  for  a  perfect  manhood  in  which  the 
superhuman  glory  only  shone  at  rare  intervals.  "  But 
emptied  Himself" 

In  the  background  of  the  Apostle's  thought  it  is 
not  improbable  the  humility  of  the  Incarnate  Son  is 
contrasted  with  the  fateful  pride  of  Adam.  With  no 
birthright  to  superhuman  knowledge  and  sovereignty, 
the  first  transgressor  thought  equality  with  God  a 
prize  to  be  grasped.  The  primeval  act  of  disobe- 
dience was  a  presumptuous  usurpation,  as  is  every 
subsequent  repetition  of  the  offence.  There  was  a 
wild  attempt  to  grasp  what  did  not  belong  to  man. 
The  guilt  of  the  race  was  redeemed  and  the  fruitful 
error  of  the  beginning  rectified  by  One  who  divested 
Himself  of  the  high  estate  and  prerogative  of  His 
Eternal  birthright.  Paradise  was  lost  by  the  man 
who  strove  to  make  himself  equal  with  God  and 
gained  by  the  unexampled  meekness  of  the  Son  who 
humbled  Himself  to  man's  low  estate.  From  the 
heights  of  infinite  majesty  He  stooped  to  the  level 


THE   SUBLIMINAL   GODHEAD  63 

of  the  guilty ;  and  stooped  once  more  from  the 
common  lot  to  the  ignominy  of  the  Cross.  The  first 
Adam  grasped  after  a  majesty  to  which  he  had  no 
claim  and  found  himself  the  slave  of  life-long  toil ; 
the  second  renouncing  His  Divine  rank  and  taking 
hold  of  the  burdens  of  an  outcast  race  is  proclaimed 
in  due  time  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour.  From  first  to 
last  we  must  be  saved  by  humility,  by  the  humility 
which  did  not  shun  the  Cross,  and  which  should 
become  a  persuasive  pattern  to  those  who  would  find 
salvation. 

Let  us  learn  the  lesson  and  empty  ourselves  so 
that  we  may  be  filled.  Adore  the  meekness  and 
love  of  the  Incarnate  Son.  It  is  little  enough  that 
we  have  to  abandon  and  renounce.  The  lowly  mind 
is  the  qualification  of  the  Saviour,  and  of  him  who 
would  win  salvation  by  His  redemptive  ministries. 
It  is  pride  which  keeps  us  from  worshipping  at  His 
feet,  pride  of  intellect,  pride  of  character,  pride  of 
ethical  standing.  Faith  is  impossible  to  the  haughty 
for  the  contrast  of  ideals  repels.  "  I  am  rich  and 
increased  in  goods  and  have  need  of  nothing."  Such 
pride  must  be  cast  out  before  faith  can  arise.  Jesus 
reached  His  enthronement  over  a  redeemed  universe 
by  self-renunciation,  and  the  ethic  of  the  manger 
must  rule  us  if  we  are  to  be  gathered  before  His 
face. 


IV 

THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 

"  In  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for  sin." — Rom.  viii.  3. 

The  Apostle  John  has  been  styled  the  special  teacher 

and   exponent  of  the    Incarnation,  for   in    both  his 

Gospel  and  Epistle  this  doctrine  is  an  oft-recurring 

keynote.     The  two  writings  are  bound  together  by  a 

common    theme,  in   spite   of  striking  dissimilarities. 

"  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 

with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God."     "  That  which 

was  from  the  beginning,  that  which  we  have  heard, 

that  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes,  that  which 

we  beheld  and   our   hands   handled   concerning  the 

Word  of  Life."     The  teachings  of  Paul  abound  with 

the  same  doctrine,  although  he  approaches  the  theme 

by  a  different   pathway  and   subordinates  it  to  the 

cardinal  truth  of  redemption  by  the   Cross.     John's 

interest  in  the  subject  was  excited  by  what  he  had 

seen  of  the  superhuman  glory  of  Jesus,  by  his  habit 

of  pondering  upon  the  primal  mysteries  of  being,  and 

especially  by   that  basis   for   union   with  the  living 

Lord  which  the  great  truth  offered.     Paul  goes  back 

64 


THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  65 

to  the  Incarnation,  and  the  pre-existing  Sonship  it 
implied,  because  his  doctrine  of  the  effectual,  recon- 
ciling sacrifice,  apart  from  the  superhuman  birth, 
must  ever  be  built  in  the  vacant  air.  The  self- 
emptying  of  Him,  who  was  in  the  form  of  God,  had 
its  grand  motive  in  the  death  whereby  men  were 
ransomed  from  a  doom  of  wrath.  The  teaching  which 
puts  the  main  stress  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  Incarna- 
tion is  at  least  a  reversal  of  Paul's  order.  The 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  makes  the  inn  at  Bethlehem 
the  portal  leading  to  the  Cross,  whilst  some  teachers 
incline  to  make  the  Cross  itself  a  mere  signpost 
pointing  back  to  the  Incarnate  mystery  of  which  the 
manger  is  a  symbol.  The  precise  relation  between 
these  two  momentous  truths  is  laid  down  in  the 
words  before  us  :  "  God  sending  His  own  Son  in 
the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  as  an  offering  for 
sin." 

The  text  implies  that  the  Divine  Sonship  of 
Jesus  was  not  a  relationship  built  up  in  the  course 
of  His  life  upon  earth  by  acts  of  obedience  and 
spiritual  fellowship.  A  king  can  only  send  as  his 
messenger  and  representative  one  who  has  already 
grown  into  such  ripe  wisdom  and  proven  loyalty  that 
he  can  fulfil  the  trust  imposed  upon  him.  To  send 
implies  an  antecedent  character  and  personality 
which  qualify  for  the  special  mission.  To  send  in 
a  frail  form  of  flesh  implies  mighty  spiritual  at- 
tributes, sufficiently  exemplified  in  a  history  which 
antedates  that  of  the  flesh  and  is  in  contrast  to  it. 
To  send  in  the  likeness  of  the  flesh  of  sin  implies 
graces  and  virtues  so  inviolably  established,  that  no 
fresh  catastrophe  can  arise  through  this  organic 
participation  in  a  substance  that  has  hitherto  proved 

6 


66  THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 

itself  corrupt,  treacherous  to  moral  issues,  and  guilt- 
stained. 

When  we  speculate  too  freely,  and  dogmatise  with 
undue  confidence,  about  what  feelings  must  have 
been  called  forth  within  the  heart  of  the  Divine 
Fatherhood  by  the  event  of  the  Incarnation,  we 
offend  against  both  taste  and  reverence.  And  yet 
to  some  extent  we  are  allowed  and  encouraged  to 
interpret  by  the  analogies  of  our  own  experience 
these  inspired  statements  concerning  the  Father's 
gift  and  the  Son's  self-humiliation,  and  all  the  deep 
stirrings  within  the  Divine  mind  for  which  they 
stand. 

We  should  shrink  back  with  a  shudder  if  it  were 
suggested  that  one  of  our  children,  untested  and 
undeveloped  in  character,  and  of  half-expanded 
intelligence,  should  be  sent  forth  into  a  foreign  land 
and  incorporated  with  a  savage  tribe.  By  such  an 
experiment  the  child's  moral  possibilities  might  be 
jeopardised  and  a  futile  oblation  to  Moloch  might 
be  offered.  Perhaps  we  could  consent,  and  even 
glory  in  the  honour,  if  a  grown-up  son  were  to  feel 
it  his  vocation  to  go  forth  and  become  one  with  the 
tribe,  so  as  to  abolish  its  degradations,  and  by  wisdom 
and  compassion  uplift  it  to  better  things.  We  could 
trust  his  character  and  make  quite  sure  that,  whilst 
saving  others,  he  himself  would  rise  rather  than  fall 
in  the  moral  scale. 

That  the  Son  of  God  had  to  take  upon  Himself 
the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  was  perhaps  the  bitterest 
and  most  agonising  humiliation  of  His  earthly  lot. 
The  fact  that  He  received  at  birth  a  body  sus- 
ceptible to  pain,  frailty,  privation,  with  a  sentence 
of  death  written   upon  its  constituents,  was  not  the 


THE  COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  67 

saddest  part  of  His  destiny.  If  one  of  our  children 
were  to  show  constitutional  symptoms,  marking  him 
out  for  a  career  of  weakness  and  long-dragging  pain, 
it  would  trouble  us  less  than  if,  through  some  inex- 
plicable cause,  he  were  to  resemble  in  features  a 
notorious  criminal,  or  carry  to  the  grave  a  birth- 
mark linking  him  with  some  scene  of  infamy  and 
shame.  Upon  the  form  assumed  by  Him,  who  was 
the  express  image  of  His  Father's  glory,  the  likeness 
of  a  criminal  race  was  stamped.  The  spirit  and 
character  of  Jesus  could  not  fail  to  refine  and  beautify 
the  flesh  with  which  He  was  invested,  and  painters 
are  true  to  the  genius  of  the  Gospel  when  they 
idealise  His  features  into  celestial  charm.  But  the 
Eternal  Father  could  not  forget  that  it  was  into  the 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh  the  Son  entered  through 
His  birth  on  earth,  a  likeness  in  which  traits  sacred 
and  Divine  were  curiously  mixed  with  the  linea- 
ments we  associate  with  moral  deformity  and  trans- 
gression ;  nor  could  the  Son  Himself  forget  this 
burning  humiliation  through  which  He  must  pass 
in  His  work  of  saving  men. 

A  missionary  traveller  in  inland  China  once  had 
to  reach  a  ferry  by  taking  off  shoes  and  socks  and 
traversing  a  muddy  pathway  from  which  the  flood 
had  only  just  retired.  After  walking  a  few  paces  he 
noticed  a  poor  unsightly  leper,  a  few  yards  ahead, 
slowly  moving  to  the  same  point.  The  marks  of  his 
disfigured  feet  were  imprinted  in  the  mud,  and  it 
caused  a  shudder  as  the  missionary  found  himself 
treading,  with  bare  feet,  in  the  steps  of  a  loathsome 
beggar.  The  contact  was  indirect,  and  perhaps  there 
was  no  risk,  but  the  sickening  association  haunted 
his  imagination  for  days.     If  the  identification   had 


68  THE  COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 


been  more  intimate,  and  the  white  man  had  been 
compelled  to  shelter  in  the  sufferer's  grass-hut,  to 
share  the  same  couch,  to  wear  his  contaminated 
raiment,  it  might  have  maddened  an  over-sensitive 
brain.  To  a  pure  and  holy  nature  sin  is  more 
repulsive  than  any  leprosy,  and  the  union  of  the 
flesh  with  the  spirit  in  human  nature  is  closer  than 
that  of  a  man  with  the  house  in  which  he  lives,  or 
of  the  body  with  the  raiment  which  drapes  it.  The 
corruption  which  inheres  in  human  flesh,  the  brand 
of  traditional  guilt  imprinted  upon  it,  the  signs  of 
ancestral  transgression  which,  at  its  best,  it  still  bears, 
is  more  repellent  to  God's  beloved  and  only  Son  than 
the  uttermost  odiousness  of  disease.  And  yet  Jesus 
takes  upon  Himself  this  likeness. 

It  is  true  the  human  form  He  assumed  could  not 
affect  the  Father's  judgment  of  His  holy  Son,  or 
impair  the  relations  of  eternal  tenderness,  and  yet 
it  must  expose  that  Son  to  human  disparagement 
and  contempt  and  so  make  the  Father  a  participator 
in  the  saving  sacrifice  of  love.  It  is  conceivable  a 
well-born  child  might  develop  a  face  akin  to  the 
types  with  which  the  student  of  criminology  is 
familiar,  such  a  face  as  is  figured  for  us  in  the 
pages  of  Lombroso,  and  it  is  conceivable  that  the 
father  of  the  child  might  know  all  the  time  that 
his  young  soul  was  sweet  as  the  dew  and  white  as 
the  snow  of  the  untrampled  Alp.  He  might  be  fully 
persuaded,  moreover,  that  this  uncomely  and  repul- 
sive child  had  in  him  the  making  of  an  uncommon 
saint  or  a  great  philanthropist.  And  yet  the  father 
could  not  fail  to  feel  distress,  knowing  that  the 
unhappy  features  must  challenge  the  dislike  and 
misjudgment   of  the   world    for    years.     God   sends 


THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  69 

His  Son  to  bear  the  likeness  of  the  outcast  race  of 
the  universe,  so  that  He  might  redeem  it  from 
degeneracy  and  perdition.  He  is  always  well  pleased 
with  the  Son,  for  His  knowledge  goes  beyond  that 
which  is  outward.  Yet  from  the  beginning  the  Son 
wears  the  garb  of  the  condemned  race  and  bears 
branded  in  His  flesh  a  sentence  of  death.  He  has 
to  make  His  grave  with  the  wicked  and  to  be 
numbered  with  transgressors,  and  for  the  time  being 
is  bereft  of  the  honour  which  belongs  to  His  lofty 
character  and  His  high  estate. 

A  well-known  American  story  by  Dr.  Wendell 
Holmes,  in  which  romance  and  scientific  speculation 
are  curiously  blended,  deals  with  the  problem  of 
prenatal  inoculation  by  snake-bite.  The  mother 
of  Elsie  Venner  into  whose  blood  the  poison  of  the 
adder  has  entered  dies  in  giving  birth  to  her  baby 
girl.  The  child  grows  up  with  eccentricities  bordering 
on  insanity  and  becomes  an  object  of  dread  to  neigh- 
bours and  school-companions.  She  is  gifted  with  a 
curious  power  of  fascination  and  is  able  to  dominate 
those  upon  whom  she  fixes  her  weird  and  glittering 
eyes.  Her  movements  are  serpentine  and  she  shows 
a  special  fondness  for  snake-like  trinkets  of  gold. 
Sometimes  she  secludes  herself  in  a  mountain  cave 
haunted  by  the  creatures  of  whom  before  her  birth 
she  was  an  unconscious  victim.  All  her  gestures  are 
suggestive  of  this  tragic  misfortune,  known  only  to 
her  father  and  her  negro  nurse.  Before  she  dies  her 
nature  is  softened  and  beautifully  humanised.  If 
such  an  incident  were  possible  of  course  the  law  of 
moral  responsibility  could  only  cover  one  half  of  her 
life.  But  that  question  apart,  what  a  distress  to  the 
father  to  find  his  child  shunned  and  abhorred,  although 


70  THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 

he  himself  might  know  the  secret  of  her  birth  and 
have  faith  in  the  complete  innocence  of  her  deepest 
nature.  The  assimilation  of  the  child  for  a  time 
to  a  lower  and  a  dreaded  type  of  life, — a  type 
that  has  been  an  age-long  symbol  of  mahgnant  and 
deadly  temper, — must  surely  have  been  a  tragedy  of 
the  deepest  and  most  mysterious  distress. 

That  a  holy  and  loving  Son  should  be  made  in 
the  likeness  of  the  flesh  of  sin,  a  likeness  in  which 
Divine  traits  were  blended  with  the  marks  of  a 
flesh  associated  with  depravity  and  transgression, 
must  have  had  a  meaning  in  the  heart  of  the  Divine 
Fatherhood  into  which  we  cannot  enter.  Perhaps 
the  father  of  Elsie  Venner  could  divine  the  secret 
more  fully  than  the  profoundest  theologian.  For  us 
men  and  for  our  salvation  Jesus  was  born  out  of  the 
Divine  order  to  which  He  belonged.  The  sacrifice 
of  love  must  be  measured  by  what  a  human  father 
feels  when  he  sees  his  child  conforming  in  the  linea- 
ments he  has  assumed  to  a  type  of  being  which  has 
become  abhorrent.  The  angels  called  to  worship  the 
only-begotten  Son,  when  He  was  brought  into  the 
world,  must  surely  have  been  smitten  with  astonish- 
ment as  they  saw  Him  made  in  outward  visage  like 
unto  His  transgressing  brethren.  "  In  the  likeness  of 
sinful  flesh." 

The  question  has  been  asked,  "  Would  God  have 
become  Incarnate  if  the  disobedience  of  the  race 
had  not  required  such  a  method  for  its  deliverance  ?  " 
The  statement  has  been  hazarded,  by  a  school  of 
speculative  theologians,  that  apart  from  the  Fall  of 
Man  the  Eternal  Word  would  have  ultimately  entered 
into  some  kind  of  corporate  and  visible  Headship 
with  the  world  He  had  made,  and  that  a  pre-ordained 


THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  71 

Incarnation  was  simply  stamped  with  a  special  mean- 
ing by  this  incident  of  sin  which   had  emerged   in 
human  development.     The  argument  is  urged   that 
it  is  scarcely  conceivable  God  could  have  held  Him- 
self always    aloof,   a   remote,  imperfectly  discerned, 
unknown   God,  entering   into    no  visible    fellowship 
with    the    created    Universe.      But    to    argue    con- 
cerning what  might  have  been    in    the   absence   of 
certain   eventualities    is    a    precarious   process   that 
can    lead   to  no  definite  conclusions.      Unless  man 
had  corrupted   himself,  God  might  not  have  needed 
in    any  degree  to   bring    Himself  into   the   field   of 
human  vision,  by  assuming   a   form  of  flesh.     The 
Divine  purpose  could  have  been  met  by  the  ascent 
of  man  into  fellowship  with  God,  through  the  Eternal 
Word,  rather  than  by  the  descent  of  God.     Indeed, 
no   problem   of  separation  could  have  arisen.     The 
speculation    assumes  that  matter  itself,  rather  than 
the  incompetence  caused  by  moral  disease,  is  the  cal- 
losity which  has  overspread  man's  delicate  spiritual 
senses.     In  the  days  of  his  innocence,  man  did  not 
find  God  afar  off,  and   the  story  of  Eden,  with  its 
artless  blending  of  history  and  moral  parable,  supplies 
the  first  suggestion  of  the  truth  that  the  pure  in  heart 
see  God  in  virtue  of  an  essential  law,  and  not  as  an 
arbitrary  privilege.     If  God  had  needed  to  address 
Himself  directly  to  the  senses  of  His  finite  creatures, 
the  self-emptying  for  the  suffering   of  death   could 
not   have   been  required,  and  what  was    more  than 
self-emptying — the  taking  upon  Himself  of  blurred, 
corruptible  flesh,  bearing  upon  it  the  brand-mark  of 
a   fallen  race,  would  have  been  inconceivable.     Into 
the  texture  of  the  humanity  He  had  assumed  there 
was    wrought,   as    in    threads    of    burning    fire,    the 


72 


THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 


"  Scarlet  Letter  "  of  human  shame.  Under  the  fair, 
unblemished  form  carried  into  the  Temple  to  be 
presented  for  God's  service,  Simeon  seemed  to  read 
the  lineaments  of  a  Man  of  Sorrows,  through  whom 
the  long  expected  redemption  was  to  come.  It  was 
in  His  birth  and  all  it  comprehended  that  Jesus  was 
consecrated  to  the  work  of  sacrifice,  of  which  the 
Cross  is  the  enduring  emblem.  The  Incarnation  has 
no  intelligible  motive,  apart  from  the  preparation  of  a 
body  for  sacrifice. 

The  condemnation  of  sin  in  the  flesh  is  one  form 
of  stating  the  great  motive  of  the  Incarnation.  Evil 
receives  its  sentence  of  death  when  God  bans  it  in 
this  solemn  form,  and  at  length  humanity  itself  is 
brought  to  ratify  and  enforce  His  condemnation. 

Sin  in  the  flesh  was  tolerated  and  condoned  before 
Jesus  came  down  to  live  His  sinless  life  amongst  men. 
It  was  accepted  everywhere  as  a  necessity  inherent 
in  the  visible  organic  framework  of  things.  It  is 
interesting  to  think  that  the  old  tradition,  which 
makes  a  Persian  king  one  of  the  Magi,  lends  itself 
to  an  instructive  interpretation,  because  the  religion  of 
the  ancient  Persians  held  that  matter  was  inherently 
evil  and  could  never  by  any  possibility  become  good. 
The  babe  before  whom  he  bowed  was  to  prove  in 
His  personal  history  and  example  that  it  was  not  so. 
Bearing  though  He  did  "the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh," 
He  lived  a  perfectly  sinless  life.  Through  His  Incar- 
nation He  became  sensitive  to  all  the  temptations 
which  master  the  flesh  and  triumphed  over  them,  so 
proving  that  it  is  not  an  inseparable  property  of 
matter  to  be  evil.  The  modern  doctrine  of  scientific 
Determinism  has  much  in  common  with  the  ethic  of 
the  ancient  world,  for  it  implies  that  the  acts  we  are 


THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  73 

accustomed  to  call  sins  are  inseparable  from  sentient 
life.  Jesus  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh  by  exempli- 
fying the  supremacy  of  the  spirit  over  all  the  passions 
of  the  body,  a  feat  impossible  apart  from  the  Incar- 
nation. Brooding  in  far-off  circles  of  being,  inac- 
cessible to  the  dwellers  upon  earth,  and  more  or  less 
incomprehensible,  how  could  He  allure  by  high  ex- 
ample those  who  had  become  estranged  from  the 
life  of  holiness  and  win  them  to  confess  their  errors? 
Till  He  had  made  Himself  one  with  all  flesh  His 
sympathies  could  not  be  specialised  to  answer  the 
cry  of  the  woe-begone  heart.  He  could  know  no 
power  of  succouring  men  in  temptation  unless  He  had 
trodden  the  same  wilderness  and  been  made  in  all 
things  like  unto  His  brethren.  Man  would  never 
have  submitted  to  the  verdict  which  condemns  sin 
in  the  flesh  and  brings  its  dominion  to  an  end,  but 
for  the  pattern  of  One  who  bore  the  likeness  of  sinful 
flesh  and  passed  unhurt  through  its  temptations.  No 
hidden  God,  of  the  thick  darkness,  could  make  Him- 
self a  spring  of  strength  and  hope  to  men,  in  their 
conflicts  with  unholy  passion  ;  and  the  attempt  to  lay 
hold  upon  His  strength  would  have  proved  the  endless 
pursuit  of  an  infinite  phantom. 

By  His  birth  in  a  human  form  the  Son  of  God  was 
designated  to  a  service  of  redemptive  sacrifice,  in 
which  God's  counsels  of  grace  were  consummated. 
"  As  an  offering  for  sin."  The  processes  of  the  In- 
carnation reached  their  zenith  in  the  solemn,  vicarious 
surrender  of  this  spotless  life  to  the  Divine  righteous- 
ness. The  elements  of  the  mysterious  passion  were 
prepared  when  the  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
amongst  us,  and  the  Mediatorial  reign  focuses  upon 
countless   generations   of  men   the   redeeming    grace 


74  THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 

of  a  death  made  ready  for  by  the  earthly  birth  and 
endured    upon  the  Cross.     The   work  could  not  be 
otherwise   accomplished.     How   vain   to   think  of  a 
hidden  helper  making  the  sin  of  the  race  his  own  and 
removing  its  deadly  burdens  !     The  highest  virtue  of 
the  spiritual  world  was  unequal  to  the  task.    In  Beth- 
lehem we  find  the  first  link  of  association  built  up  with 
the  marred,  complex,  far-stretching  life   He  was  to 
heal  and  deliver ;  and  through  each  succeeding  stage 
of  His  history,  this  vital  and  intimate  contact  with  the 
race,  of  which  He  had  become  a  part,  was  to  be  main- 
tained.    He    could    not   save    men    whilst    standing 
outside  the  current  of  their  interests.     From  a  far-off 
throne,   begirt  with  clouds  and    darkness,  a  sign  of 
august  solitude  and  majesty.  He  could  not  lead  His 
people  into  their  release.     He  must  become  subject 
to  the  law  and,  in   the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  must 
bow  before  the  anathemas  waiting  upon  its  broken 
precepts.     The   birth   was  the  pledge  and  prophecy 
of  the  Cross,  and  the  Cross  was  the  earnest  of  the 
Mediatorial    reign.     It  was    in  the  manger   He  was 
bound  by  human  limitations  a  victim  for  the  altar 
and  on  the  altar  He  was  made  ready  for  His  throne 
on    high.     By   coming    into    scenes    devastated    by 
human    sin,  and   assuming  a  form  moulded    of  the 
same  clay  as  transgressors,  this  act  of  vicarious  love 
took  on  a  meaning  which  appealed  to  human  under- 
standing.    From  the  days  of  His  infancy  He  wore  the 
garment  of  the  condemned.     The  human  family  had 
become  corrupt,  bringing  by  disobedience   a   blight 
of  criminality  upon  the  fair  home  within  which  God 
had  lodged  it,  and  He  who   set   Himself  to  save  His 
brethren  must  enter  into  this  blemished  lot  and  bear 
this    evil    likeness.      Through    nothing    short    of    a 


THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  75 

sentient,  organic,  permanent  affiliation  with  mankind 
could  this  mysterious  messenger  from  above  become 
Redeemer,  interceding  Priest,  sceptred  King. 

God's  condemnation  of  sin  in  the  flesh  could  not 
have  awakened  an  echo  in  human  life  unless  an 
atonement  for  sin  had  been  made  by  an  Incarnate 
Being  of  infinite  holiness.  Whilst  man  feels  himself 
compelled  to  bear  unhelped  the  burden  of  his  own 
transgression,  he  will  always  be  tempted  to  excuse 
that  transgression,  and  so  sin  must  maintain  its  foot- 
hold. The  law  of  God  acquires  a  new  and  more 
profoundly  solemn  sanction,  if  God  permits  His  holy 
Son  to  endure  vicarious  penalties,  so  as  to  secure  the 
release  of  those  who  are  the  objects  of  His  compassion. 
The  hope  of  a  new  moral  order  arises  within  human 
life  and  that  without  the  intrusion  of  a  hurtful  license. 
Our  hearts  are  stirred  by  the  story  of  Bethlehem,  but, 
it  is  before  the  Cross,  rather  than  in  presence  of  the 
Nativity,  that  distraught  and  remorseful  consciences 
are  pacified.  The  Apostle,  with  a  mind  possessed  by 
the  idea  of  sovereign,  inviolable,  righteous  law,  knows 
on  what  doctrine  to  put  the  stress  of  emphasis.  The 
amend  for  a  broken  law  is  made  by  a  holy,  unselfish, 
reverent  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Father,  exem- 
plified under  all  the  drawbacks  of  the  flesh.  By  the 
hope  springing  up  from  a  vicarious  atonement  a  term 
is  put  to  sin  in  the  flesh.  The  usurper  is  cast  down 
and  destroyed.  Men  often  go  on  sinning,  avowing 
that  sin  is  no  sin,  for  want  of  hope.  They  accept  it 
as  a  part  of  the  inevitable  order  when  no  remedy 
appears.  It  is  despondency  which  marks  out  much 
of  our  social  wreckage  as  irretrievably  derelict. 
Many  unhappy  beings  around  us  have  given  up  the 
fight  and  see  no  encouragement  to  attempt  better 


76  THE   COMMON    BIRTH-MARK 

things.  They  justify  themselves  in  wrong-doing  and 
invert  all  ethical  classifications,  because  it  seems  no 
longer  possible,  for  such  as  they  are  at  least,  to  reap 
the  rewards  of  virtue.  The  new  voice  of  hope  which 
speaks  in  the  heart,  the  voice  of  the  Incarnate  and 
sin-atoning  Saviour,  is  a  sentence  of  death  upon  the 
evil  which  has  so  long  been  rampant  in  the  flesh. 
God  sending  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful 
flesh  wrote  a  sentence  of  final  condemnation  upon  sin 
in  the  flesh.  Through  our  union  with  the  Redeeming 
Head  sin  in  us  is  sentenced  to  its  final  overthrow. 
By  that  mystery  of  love  we  call  the  Incarnation, 
affinities  with  the  life  of  mankind  were  created,  in 
virtue  of  which  human  salvation  becomes  possible. 
Plants  can  be  grafted  into  each  other,  and  seeds 
cross-fertilised,  which  have  been  grown  under  the 
same  conditions.  Jesus  came  into  our  conditions, 
submitting  Himself  even  to  the  pains  of  a  broken 
law  on  our  behalf,  that  we  might  come  to  have  a 
common  life  with  Him  and  enter  into  the  secret 
of  holiness. 

The  sentence  of  condemnation  passed  upon  sin  in 
the  flesh  through  the  Incarnation  is  seen  in  the  glori- 
fied sinless  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ.  By  the  life  begun 
under  such  abject  conditions,  and  the  death  endured 
in  the  image  of  a  transgressing  race,  the  flesh  is 
delivered  from  the  doom  which  had  been  written  upon 
it.  The  Redeemer  came  into  our  flesh,  not  as  the 
passing  guest  of  a  tabernacle  that  was  to  be  finally 
taken  down,  but  to  associate  it  with  Himself  for  ever. 
He  carried  into  the  presence  of  the  Father  on  high, 
refined  and  sublimated,  the  form  which  He  had  borne 
from  His  earthly  birth,  which  had  been  numbered  with 
transgressors,  and  laid  in  the  grave  as  sharing  the  lot 


THE    COMMON    BIRTH-MARK  77 

of  an  evil  race.  He  who  was  thus  wiHingly  made  flesh, 
in  virtue  of  His  work  received  "power  over  all  flesh 
that  He  should  give  eternal  life  to  them  that  believe." 
The  words  used  in  the  last  prayer  in  the  Paschal 
chamber  were  impressive  for  they  were  uncommon. 
The  power  He  received  over  all  flesh  dawns  with  His 
assumption  of  the  place  of  the  servant,  and  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead  is  the  power  of  absolution 
asserted  in  its  final  phase.  Because  of  His  holy 
Incarnation,  and  the  sacrifice  which  completed  it,  we 
may  venture  to  look  forward  to  deliverance  from  all 
that  frets  and  dishonours  the  flesh.  Apart  from  Him, 
flesh,  as  we  know  it  here  is  vitiated  with  irretrievable 
evil. 


V 

THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

"  I  delight   to   do   Thy  will,  O  my  God  :  yea,  Thy  law  is 
within  my  heart." — Psalm  xl.  8. 

These  words  are  quoted  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  as  a  Messianic  prophecy ;  and  are 
used  at  the  same  time  to  indicate  the  supreme 
element  of  value  in  the  sacrifice  which  redeems 
mankind.  No  offering,  however  great,  vitiated  by 
a  grudging  spirit  could  have  ransomed  transgressors 
under  the  curse  of  a  broken  law. 

Without  the  help  of  such  an  interpreter  we  should 
not  have  discovered  this  special  reference  in  the 
Psalmist's  words,  for  this  servant  of  God,  who  aspired 
so  nobly,  goes  on  to  declare  how  an  overpowering 
sense  of  personal  sin  conflicts  with  the  part  allotted 
to  him  in  the  counsels  of  the  Eternal.  "  Mine  iniqui- 
ties have  taken  hold  upon  me  so  that  I  cannot  look 
up."  If  the  stanzas  are  autobiographic,  the  glow  of 
the  Messianic  dream  fades  and  great  aspirations  are 
stifled  by  an  oppressive  sense  of  unworthiness.  Such 
a  confession  shows  how  impossible  it  is  to  apply  the 
undivided  Psalm  to  a  sinless  Saviour,  in  whom   the 

78 


THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD  79 

hopes  of  long  and  weary  centuries  were  at  last  realised. 
The  words  were  indited  in  some  sweet,  thrilling 
spring-time  of  the  singer's  history,  possibly  at  his 
anointing  for  the  kingship,  or  when  the  Lord  had 
given  him  rest  from  his  enemies  ;  but  he  fell  short, 
and  generations  afterwards  the  ideal  was  fulfilled  by 
another. 

What  principle  guides  the  New  Testament  writer 
when  he  picks  out  from  an  early  document  a  salient 
sentence,  or  a  coronation  motto,  and  puts  it  into  the 
lips  of  the  Saviour,  whilst  the  hymn  as  a  whole  admits 
of  no  such  reference  ?  Our  reverence  for  Apostles, 
and  for  the  men  who  wrote  under  their  direction, 
would  be  weakened,  if  we  could  think  the  sense  they 
had  of  their  prerogatives  as  interpreters  of  the  early 
religious  documents,  betrayed  them  into  arbitrary 
and  illogical  methods.  They  surely  did  not  read, 
without  rhyme  or  reason,  into  ancient  texts  fanciful 
evangelical  meanings  we  cannot  trace.  A  superficial 
glance  at  this  Psalm  may  perhaps  suggest  to  us  that 
the  writer,  whether  David  or  some  other  inspired  man, 
was  thinking  of  himself  from  beginning  to  end,  and 
not  consciously  speaking  in  the  name  of  a  descendant. 
But  we  must  not  unduly  narrow  our  view.  Two  or 
three  considerations  may  serve  to  show  how,  without 
doing  violence  to  the  thought  of  the  man  who  first 
used  the  words,  they  may  pass  into  a  watchword  of 
the  Messianic  work  and  mission. 

A  vague  Messianic  hope  was  widely  diffused  among 
men  from  the  beginnings  of  history ;  and  this  hope 
tended  to  centre  itself  in  the  kings  of  primitive 
peoples,  perhaps  because  of  the  priestly  functions  they 
exercised.  Recent  researches  in  Assyriology  tend  to 
show  that  the  rulers  of  the  oldest  empires  were  priest- 


8o  THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

kings,  and  that  their  civil  prerogatives  were  grafted 
on  to  their  rank  as  high  Pontiffs  of  the  popula- 
tions over  which  they  were  set.  As  the  religious 
representatives  of  the  people  they  offered  sacrifices, 
which  in  some  cases  bore  a  vicarious  and  piacular 
significance.  The  sense  of  blood-affinity,  in  com- 
munities of  a  pure  and  unmixed  descent,  gave  force 
and  vital  emphasis  to  the  representative  character  of 
the  ruler  in  his  acts  of  sacrifice.  Indeed,  this  union 
of  the  high"  priesthood  with  the  kingship  existed 
beyond  the  area  of  the  Semitic  populations,  and  one 
of  the  rulers  of  ancient  China,  praying  before  the  altar 
of  heaven  for  his  distressed  people,  asked  that  the 
Divine  judgments  might  alight  upon  his  own  person. 
A  strain  of  pathetic  magnanimity  entered  into  the 
prayer,  which  may  perhaps  justify  us  in  describing  it 
as  semi-Messianic.  The  priest  was  identified  with 
the  sacrifices  he  was  offering.  Perhaps  the  ideal  of 
the  office  in  those  days  was  nearer  to  that  of  Jesus 
Christ,  than  in  the  later  days  when  men  looked  for 
a  deliverer,  who  should  wield  a  swift  and  invincible 
sword  of  righteousness.  The  final  separation  between 
the  priestly  and  the  kingly  office,  which  was  not  com- 
pleted till  the  last  days  of  the  Jewish  monarchy,  may 
have  tended  to  rob  the  Messianic  ideal  of  some  of  its 
most  essential  characteristics  and  have  given  rise  to 
that  discrepancy  between  the  current  tradition  and 
the  actual  life-work  of  Jesus  Christ,  upon  which 
those  students  fasten,  who  assert  that  the  Teacher 
of  Nazareth  did  not  claim  to  fulfil  Messianic 
prophecies. 

In  the  days  of  the  first  kings  of  Israel,  men  were 
looking  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  Divine  promises  in 
the  person  of  a  providential  ruler.     Notwithstanding 


THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 


the  separation  of  a  special  family  to  the  work  of  the 
priesthood,  the  king  still  represented  his  people  before 
God,  and  often  performed  the  act  of  sacrifice.  The 
promise  made  to  Abraham,  and  renewed  from  time  to 
time  to  his  descendants,  was  put  in  trust  with  the 
house  of  David,  and  the  believing  expectation  con- 
centrated itself  in  his  line.  The  ideal  coloured  the 
hopes  of  himself  and  of  his  successors,  just  as  ideals 
of  science,  art  and  conquest  have  fixed  themselves  in 
the  blood  of  select  groups  of  families  within  recent 
periods  of  our  own  history.  Such  hopes  contained 
the  germinating  forces  of  genuine  Messianic  prophecy. 
David  who  had  received  the  hope  of  his  fathers  both 
for  himself,  and  as  a  trust  for  his  descendants,  at  least 
brought  that  hope  a  stage  nearer  to  its  accomplish- 
ment, in  spite  of  his  grievous  defections.  Assuming 
that  the  Psalm  in  its  first  form  was  that  of  the  royal 
shepherd,  the  voice  of  a  mighty  descendant  speaks 
by  the  lips  of  a  chosen  and  inspired  forefather.  This 
coronation-motto  links  itself  on  the  one  hand  with  a 
chequered  past  and  on  the  other  with  a  sure  future 
of  fulfilment ;  and  does  not  deal  only  with  the  events 
which  revolve  round  the  personal  fortunes  of  the 
writer.  The  verse  preceding  our  text  is  clearly 
retrospective,  and  carries  the  thought  back  to  the 
faithless  and  rejected  Saul.  "  Sacrifice  and  offering 
thou  wouldst  not,  neither  hadst  pleasure  in  them." 
Samuel's  words,  when  he  reproved  Israel's  first  king 
and  representative  who  had  forgotten  God  and 
sought  his  own  ends,  are  caught  up  by  Saul's  suc- 
cessor and  mark  the  passing  away  of  a  fruitless  and 
the  beginning  of  a  more  vital  epoch.  No  holocaust 
of  flocks  and  herds,  raided  from  Amalek,  could  undo 
the  fateful  decree  which  had  put  aside  the  reprobate 

7 


82  THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

ruler,  and  for  the  time  being  involved  the  people  in 
distress  and  privation.  But  in  the  person  of  the  new 
king  who  comes  to  his  task  with  a  finer  appreciation 
of  God's  will  and  a  more  resolute  purpose  to  fulfil  it, 
the  wrath  was  removed  and  the  nation  reinstated  in 
Divine  favour.  This  at  least  was  typical  of  what 
Jesus  accomplished  upon  the  wider  scale  and  with 
more  complete  perfection.  The  author  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  has  in  mind  the  tragedy  of  Saul  and 
his  rejected  oblations,  reproducing  as  the  incident 
did  an  earlier  rejection  of  mankind  in  the  headship 
of  its  primitive  ancestor.  The  sacrifices  and  service 
of  the  preceding  centuries,  had  no  more  virtue  to 
restore  men  to  God's  favour  than  the  bleating  flocks 
and  lowing  herds  of  Amalek.  This  early  crisis  in 
the  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  monarchy  marks  the 
transition  from  ritual  sacrifice  to  that  free  and 
rational  obedience  in  which  true  redemption  was  in 
due  time  to  be  attained.  "  Offer  the  sacrifices  of 
righteousness  and  put  your  trust  in  the  Lord."  The 
Psalmist's  watchword  at  least  marks  the  attainment 
of  a  new  stage  of  progress. 

This  joyful,  unspotted  career  of  righteousness  and 
piety,  after  which  David  longed  when  he  came  to  the 
throne  and  by  which  he  hoped  to  establish  the 
kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  was,  alas  !  imperfectly 
realised.  The  confession,  in  the  after-part  of  the 
Psalm,  shows  how  far  he  had  come  short  of  his 
aspirations,  perhaps  even  how  utterly  he  felt  his 
unworthiness,  when  standing  upon  the  threshold  of 
authority,  he  uttered  his  high  and  memorable  vows. 
The  Messianic  dream  failed  once  more,  and  failed 
through  the  moral  incompetence  of  the  dreamer. 
And  yet  his  high  aspirations  had   not  been  unwar- 


THE   MESSIANIC  WATCHWORD  83 

ranted  and  presumptuous.  His  instinct  was  true,  for 
the  overshadowing  of  a  Divine  presence  cherished 
it  into  Hfe.  This  persistent  ideal  was  no  mocking, 
vagrant  offshoot  of  an  undisciplined  fancy.  His 
great  resolve  was  written  in  the  Book  of  the 
Divine  decrees.  The  failure  of  David  was  re- 
deemed in  his  matchless  descendant.  When  he 
called  to  mind  his  untarnished  ideal  and  his  sub- 
sequent shortcoming  he  could  only  plead  for  the 
pity  of  his  God.  But  the  fulfilment  came  in  One 
who  adopted  the  watchword  and  after  a  life,  in 
which  there  was  no  need  to  confess  a  shortcoming, 
died  upon  the  Cross  with  the  shout,  "  It  is  finished." 
The  new  programme  of  sacrifice — the  sacrifice  of  un- 
grudging, spontaneous,  all-comprehending  obedience 
which  was  dawning  in  the  mind  of  the  Psalmist — 
became  the  prophecy  of  a  new  dispensation.  Perhaps 
the  bond  between  the  dreamer  and  the  far-off  son,  in 
whom  all  things  were  accomplished,  surpassed  in  its 
intimacy  and  tenderness  our  poor  guesses  at  inter- 
pretation. Just  as  the  genius  for  art  or  music,  which 
may  break  forth  into  creative  genius  in  a  remote 
descendant,  is  born  in  us  when  we  suddenly  awaken 
to  the  spell  of  painting  or  the  charm  of  melody  and 
pass  into  a  new  world,  so  the  spirit  of  a  Divine  Son 
of  the  after-years  may  have  been  already  brooding 
within  this  devout  and  lowly  singer. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  outlook  towards  lofty 
and  unselfish  progress  has  in  it  a  diffused  and 
unfocussed  light  of  prophecy.  Whenever  we  see 
perfection  from  afar,  and  set  our  hearts  upon  it,  we 
join  hands  with  Moses,  David,  Isaiah,  and  all  the 
righteous  men  who  waited  for  redemption  in  Israel. 
But  the  weight  of  the  world  lies  heavy  upon  us,  and 


84  THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

we  cannot  often  rise  even  in  retrospect  to  the  levels 
reached  by  prophets  and  kings  through  the  power  of 
inspired  prevision.  In  every  magnificent  life-purpose 
and  in  every  unselfish,  absorbing  ambition  there  is  a 
faint  gleam  of  Messianic  prophecy.  One  shall  yet 
appear  to  help  us  in  the  fulfilment  of  watchwords 
that  for  the  time  have  proved  too  great  and  daring. 
This  ideal  of  joyful  obedience  to  the  redeeming 
counsels  of  the  Most  High,  corresponds  with  a  new 
view  of  the  Divine  character,  which  was  dawning  on 
the  horizon  of  Jewish  thought.  It  speaks  of  a  God, 
who,  whilst  still  zealous  for  the  righteousness  which 
has  been  the  staple  of  past  revelations,  wishes  to  be 
known  by  a  love  which  accepts  only  the  service  of  con- 
genial minds.  He  is  no  longer  satisfied  by  outward 
conformity  to  a  code  enforced  by  remorseless  power. 
The  question,  whether  a  ruler  enlists  into  his  service 
freemen  or  slaves,  is  a  test  of  what  he  himself  is  in 
his  essential  spirit  and  life.  The  pitiless  despot  of 
iron  is  content  if  he  can  gain  by  any  instrumen- 
tality the  things  upon  which  he  has  set  his  desire. 
He  has  taught  himself  to  glory  in  the  ruthlessness 
which  crushes  out  opposition,  and  perhaps  he  would 
rather  gain  his  ends  by  methods  of  terrorism  than  by 
the  persuasions  of  gentleness  and  sympathy.  It 
flatters  his  self-importance  and  pampers  his  im- 
patience of  restraint.  No  man  of  fine  feeling  cares 
for  the  work  wrung  by  whip  and  goad,  even  from 
dumb  cattle,  not  to  speak  of  creatures  of  a  common 
blood  with  his  own.  The  least  sensitive  traveller 
recoils  from  every  added  mile  taken  out  of  sore, 
parched,  over-driven,  oft-halting  horses.  The  good 
captain  of  labour  looks  with  pride  upon  the  cheerful 
and  willing  crowds   who  go  in  and  out  at  his  mill- 


THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD  85 

4 

doors,  and  loathes  the  thought  of  indentured  serfs 
kept  to  their  toils  by  brutal  overseers.  No  virtuous 
sovereign  can  find  pleasure  in  his  State,  if  its  citizens 
are  oppressed,  querulous,  weighed  down  into  faintness 
by  the  yoke  put  upon  them,  and  sometimes  ex- 
asperated into  suicide.  Corn-law  rhymes  are  not  the 
kind  of  music  good  kings  like  to  hear.  Perhaps  the 
old  brood  of  despots,  all  but  extinct,  might  take 
pleasure  in  them.  Now  and  again  it  may  be 
necessary  for  a  constitutional  sovereign  to  put  his 
seal  on  measures  which  compel  and  constrain,  but  he 
feels  humiliated  by  the  policy  to  which  he  is  driven. 
Soldiers  have  been  sent  in  chains  to  fight  for  the 
recovery  of  far-off  provinces,  in  which  they  had  no 
stake  ;  and  we  have  heard  of  press-gangs  breaking 
into  village  homes  and  dragging  peasant-conscripts 
from  their  beds  to  fight  in  a  war  they  did  not  under- 
stand. Such  service  lacks  moral  value,  and  a  humane 
and  righteous  king  would  loathe  to  accept  it.  Men 
who  represent  human  nature  at  its  best  shrink  from 
the  use  of  compulsion.  Unless  some  dire  emergency 
demands  it,  to  conscript  must  always  be  alien  to  a 
benevolent  mind.  The  service  of  free  and  loving 
children  is  preferred  to  that  of  bondsmen,  for  it  gives 
purer  satisfactions. 

In  his  prevision  of  a  joyful  and  perfect  obedience, 
rendered  to  an  inscrutable  law  of  spiritual  sacrifice, 
the  Psalmist  anticipates  in  faint  outline  that  reve- 
lation of  the  Divine  character  which  the  work  of 
Jesus  Christ  put  into  intense  light.  Any  trace  of  the 
servile  temper,  in  either  the  life  or  death  of  our  Lord 
and  Master,  would  have  implied  a  despotic  God,  or, 
at  least,  a  God  who  glories  in  the  terrible  strength 
which   exacts,   rather   than    in    the    lovingkindness 


86  THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

which  wins  the  response  of  a  free  devotion.  The 
offering  which  ransoms  the  race  must  be  an  act  of 
fihal  love  rendered  to  a  Divine  Father.  He  who 
sent  His  Son  into  the  world  to  be  man's  atoning 
Mediator  and  example,  must  needs  be  served  in 
tasks  of  supreme  difficulty  and  pain,  with  cheerful 
and  uncomplaining  loyalty.  Jesus  who  knew  all  the 
depths  of  the  Divine  heart  fulfilled  the  will  of  the 
Father,  in  its  most  mysterious  and  distressing 
demands,  with  complete  consecration  of  spirit  and  an 
invincible  sense  of  blessedness  in  His  high  vocation. 
The  spirit  of  unconstrained  delight  which  domi- 
nates an  act  of  service  is  a  test  of  the  true  nature  of 
Him  who  renders  it.  "  I  delight  to  do."  "  Thy  law  is 
within  my  heart."  A  ministry,  which  runs  counter 
to  the  immediate  interests  and  harrows  the  super- 
ficial sensibilities  of  the  flesh,  must  be  fed  from 
deep  inward  springs,  and  accord  with  principles  of 
permanent  sacredness  in  the  life,  if  it  is  to  be  hearty. 
When  an  inherent  congruity  between  the  essential 
character  and  the  motive  of  the  task  undertaken  is 
wanting,  the  pursuit  of  the  task  cannot  possibly 
satisfy  the  soul.  No  man  is  master  of  the  art  or 
craft  which  occupies  him,  nor  indeed  fitted  by  in- 
born aptitude  for  its  special  pursuit  unless  its  ideals 
are  a  constant  pleasure  to  him.  The  fact  that  it 
frets  and  nauseates  is  proof  that  it  has  been  imposed 
from  without  rather  than  prompted  from  within. 
Every  lofty  and  refining  vocation  has  its  alphabet  of 
initial  drudgery,  but  if  the  sense  of  drudgery 
continues,  the  conclusion  is  rightly  drawn  that  the 
inborn  talent  is  wanting.  The  thrush  needs  no  goad 
to  drive  it  into  song.  Nature  pours  her  gifts  of 
colour,  fragrance  and  fruitfulness  into  the  lap  of  man 


THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD  87 

because  her  heart  is  too  large  to  contain  itself,  and 
she  needs  no  impertinent  compulsion  from  without. 

And  in  a  life  vexed  by  the  contradiction  of  sinners, 
and  upon  a  redeeming  cross  of  shame,  our  Incarnate 
kinsman  and  representative  fulfilled  the  law  of  righte- 
ousness, making  salvation  possible  to  all,  because  the 
law  was  that  of  His  own  deep  and  holy  nature,  and 
obedience  to  it  brought  a  contentment,  exceeding  at 
length  the  bitterness  of  those  torments  which  vexed 
His  shrinking  flesh.  When  the  solemn  hour  of  His 
Passion  was  at  hand  there  was  no  temptation  to 
truancy  or  compromise.  The  work  of  Jesus,  in 
making  good  our  default  under  a  righteous  law  and 
binding  its  renewed  obligations  upon  our  natures,  all 
those  high  fulfilments  to  which  he  devoted  Himself  as 
our  representative,  would  have  been  a  service  of  the 
letter,  and  indeed  worthless  in  the  eyes  of  the  all- 
searching  Father  for  the  ends  proposed,  if  this  hearty 
inwardness  had  been  wanting.  Men  unhappily  prize 
obedience,  not  so  much  for  the  moral  values  it  con- 
tains, as  for  its  material  utilities.  The  planter  wants 
sugar,  tea  or  indigo  out  of  the  soil,  and  scarcely  con- 
siders the  temper  of  the  coolie  who  digs  and  hoes  in 
the  hot  sun.  The  mine-owner  wants  tons  of  gold- 
bearing  rock  hewn  from  the  depths  of  the  earth,  and 
whether  the  human  machines  immured  there  in 
darkness  are  indentured  or  free  agents  is  a  trifle  of 
which  he  makes  little  account.  The  general  must 
take  a  fort  and  wants  the  result,  whether  his  regi- 
ments are  made  up  of  conscripts  or  volunteers.  But 
God  does  not  need  secular  and  material  ends,  least  of 
all  to  enlist  instruments  for  His  purposes  by  the 
methods  of  the  press-gang.  "  If  I  were  hungry  I 
would  not  tell  thee."     In  the  service  which  dedicates 


88  THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 


itself  to  His  sovereign  will  He  seeks  moral  qualities. 
He  is  not  satisfied  with  the  flawless  and  the  immacu- 
late, if  it  is  that  of  the  outward  behaviour  only.  The 
obedience  whose  virtues  are  consonant  with  His  own 
character  must  be  free  and  untrammelled  as  the 
winds  of  heaven.  This  ideal  was  realised  in  Jesus 
Christ  for  the  first  time,  and,  wonderful  to  say,  pre- 
eminently realised  in  His  sacrifice.  It  was  this  which 
gave  to  His  offering  incomparable  value  and  endowed 
it  with  age-long  and  all-availing  efficacy.  The  joyful- 
ness  of  the  response  to  God's  redemptive  call  and  the 
inwardness  of  the  motives  declared  in  the  response, 
were  two  aspects  of  one  and  the  same  fact. 

The  crowning  worth  of  our  Lord's  obedience  to  the 
law  of  redemptive  sacrifice  consisted  in  its  winsome 
whole-heartedness,  for  the  temper  of  the  sacrifice 
was  the  key  to  that  amazing  love  which  found  its  last 
expression  in  the  Cross.  His  oblation  belonged  to  a 
realm  sharply  divided  off  from  that  in  which  ritual 
expiations  were  presented  to  God.  The  virtue  of  the 
noblest  life  placed  upon  Jewish  altars  ended  with  the 
thought  of  the  worshipper  and  could  not  ascend  into 
the  moral  and  spiritual  heights,  because  in  the  poor 
dumb  meagre  life,  taken  from  the  sunshine  of  the 
green  hills  and  slain  by  the  knife  of  the  Levite,  it  was 
impossible  that  there  should  be  the  least  trace  of 
rational  consent.  The  greatness  of  man  can  only 
assert  itself  in  conditions  of  liberty,  and  the  merit  of 
his  gifts  and  offerings  rises  or  falls  with  the  degree 
of  voluntary  devotion  they  symbolise.  The  greatness 
of  the  God-Man  and  the  worth  of  His  atonement  are 
determined  by  yet  higher  conditions  of  freedom.  In 
Jesus  Christ,  love  of  the  righteous  Father  conjoined 
with   compassion   for   the  human    race,  issued  in   a 


THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD  89 

spontaneous  self-surrender,  which  was  the  crowning 
glory  of  His  redemptive  work.     It  was  the  burning 
and  self-determined  loyalty  whereby   He  met  each 
successive  throb  of  pain,   which  transfigured   into  a 
supreme  power  of  reconciliation  the  tragic  experiences 
of  the  Passion.     The  Father  could  not  accept  a  con- 
strained obedience,  however  complete  and  unblem- 
ished in  its  outward  form,  as  the  ransom  price  of  a 
race,  guilty  and  condemned.     We  sometimes  muse 
upon  the  pale,  bowed  form,  the  scourged  flesh  with  its 
red    furrows  and  blood  gouts,  the  thorn  crown,  the 
drooped  head,  and  say,  "  Surely  it  was  these  things 
which  redeemed  !  "    Nay.    Rather  was  it  the  transcen- 
dent moral  qualities  whose  dimensions  were  reflected 
in  these  abysses  of  unfathomable  pain.     Acts  rise  in 
ethical  value  with  the  freedom  of  spirit  which  attends 
their  accomplishment.     The  soldier  does  not  win  the 
highest  honour  of  his  vocation  by  responding  to  a 
word  of  command,  but  by  a  valorous  initiative  which 
is   the    fruit   of  his    own    free    humanity    and    goes 
beyond    the   letter   of  common   duty.     The   law   of 
vicarious    redemption    was    binding    upon    Christ's 
higher  nature,  as  decalogues  are  binding  upon   our 
inferior   natures,    but    it    found  its  sanctions   within. 
It    had  its  roots  in  love  to  the  Father,  pity  for  the 
fallen  children  of  men,  and  boundless  honour  for  a 
dishonoured   law,   and   was   written    by   no  external 
inscription  like  that  which  Pilate  put  over  the  cross. 
The  restraint  we  associate  with  the  idea  of  law  is 
alien  to  the  infinite  fulness  of  love  and  would  have 
vitiated    the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  itself.     It   was  the 
spontaneity  of  love  which  made  the  Man  of  Sorrows 
as  cheerful  and  willing  a  messenger  of  redemption,  as 
the    gladdest  angel  in  heaven  sent  to  wait  upon  the 


90  THE   MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

steps  of  a  saint ;  and  it  was  this  which  stamped  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Cross  with  unexampled  efficacy.  The 
history  of  the  human  race,  and,  we  may  venture  to 
add,  the  long  story  of  the  universe,  had  seen  no  such 
triumph  of  love. 

Was   this    ideal    of  unqualified    and   spontaneous 
loyalty  to  the  law  of  redemptive  sacrifice  fully  realised 
in  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ  ?     If  it  was  noi;  the  world 
still  lacks  a  full  and   trustworthy  atonement  for  its 
sin.     The  ideal  could  not  be  attained  by  the  grace 
of  a  plaintive  resignation,  by  the  silent  acceptance  of 
inevitable   burdens,  by  uncomplaining  acquiescence 
in  the  Cross  and  its  untold  fate.     The  Sufferer  must 
take  up  the  tremendous  burden  of  His  own  free  intent. 
In  this  higher  spiritual  realm  was  there  any  falling 
short  of  the  Messianic  watchword,  as  Saul  and  David 
and  other  aspirants  failed  in  the  sphere  of  outward 
duty  ?      In    the   court   of  the    Temple    on    the  day 
before  the  Passion,  and  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane, 
we  have   glimpses    of  the    mysterious   struggle   be- 
tween the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  with  which  the  passing 
moment   was   fraught;    for   the   humanity   of  Jesus 
would  scarcely  have  been  one  with  our  own,  unless 
this  transcendent  conquest  of  the  senses  by  a  will  of 
invincible  holiness  had  been    acquired    by  progress, 
rather    than    inherited    from    a    pre-incarnate    state. 
Every  incident  of  the  history  serves  to   show  how 
victory  over  all  human  weaknesses  followed  the  con- 
flict, and  in  the  end  the  grand  watchword  was  fulfilled 
to  its  last  jot  and  tittle.     Through   the  whole  of  His 
public  ministry.  His  death   had  been    foreseen,   and 
announced  again  and  again  to   unheeding  disciples. 
But  His  face   was   "steadfastly   set"   to   go   up   to 
Jerusalem,  a  sign  of  the  will  resolute  and   free,  that 


THE  mp:ssianic  watchword  91 

could  not  be  diverted  from  the  Cross.  The  paschal 
feast,  with  its  solemn  innovations,  reflecting  though 
it  did  the  Master's  near  death,  was  a  feast  of  sacred 
and  chastened  joy.  Consolations,  which  built  up  the 
will  in  its  holy  choice,  came  through  these  strange 
channels.  The  Psalms  sung  by  Jesus  with  His  dis- 
ciples ere  He  left  the  guest-chamber,  were  sung  in  all 
sincerity  by  lips  which  could  not  lie,  and  if  we  read 
the  Hallel  Psalms  we  shall  find  that  there  are  but  few 
minor  passages  in  them.  We  could  not  honestly 
sing  them  under  some  of  the  lighter  troubles  and 
vexations  of  life.  If  His  will  seemed  to  waver  for 
a  moment,  as  the  drops  of  red  sweat  fell  upon  the 
ground,  its  freedom  was  immediately  vindicated,  for 
He  delivered  Himself  up  to  the  men  who  had  been 
sent  to  arrest  Him  and  wavered  in  their  task. 

He  was  no  mere  victim  at  the  place  called  Calvary. 
The  portents  would  have  favoured  His  release,  if  He 
had  pressed  home  their  import  to  His  superstitious 
tormentors.  An  active  ministry  of  pleading  and  inter- 
ceding love  dominated  the  awful  scene.  He  would 
accept  release  from  no  hand  but  that  of  His  Father, 
and,  in  the  last  flash  of  earthly  consciousness.  He 
delivered  His  spirit  into  the  care  of  Him  whose  face 
was  mysteriously  veiled.  The  death  of  redeeming 
love  is  free  and  unconstrained. 

Such  willing  obedience  to  a  lot  so  dark  and  terrible 
is  without  parallel,  a  distinct  break  in  the  established 
course  of  a  moral  and  intelligent  universe,  a  culminat- 
ing miracle  in  spiritual  history.  He,  whose  visage 
was  more  marred  than  any  man's,  and  His  form  than 
the  sons  of  men,  was  the  joyful  Herald  and  the  active 
Perfecter  of  the  redemptive  will  of  His  Father,  amidst 
these   overpowering   tribulations.     A    new    order    of 


92  THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

qualities  offered  itself  to  the  contemplation  of  men 
and  to  the  eyes  of  the  Eternal.  Nothing  can  be 
reconciling  in  its  final  issues,  if  this  gracious  work  falls 
short  of  it.  Herein  lay  sufficient  proof  of  the  Divine 
elements  in  His  sacrifice.  It  had  infinite  efficacy  not 
merely  because  the  Sufferer  was  clothed  with  the 
wisdom,  power  and  high  authority  of  the  Godhead, 
but  because  He  was  pre-eminently  clothed  with  its 
distinctively  spiritual  attributes.  This  pure  essential 
love,  without  beginning  or  end,  shows  itself  under 
conditions  of  perfect  freedom,  the  freedom  which 
belongs  to  the  Supreme  God  and  the  only  conditions 
under  which  He  can  show  His  spiritual  greatness. 
Jesus  Christ,  in  His  act  of  sacrifice,  was  not  obeying 
compulsions  that  were  outside  His  own  nature. 

Ought  not  this  view  to  remove  some  of  the  difficul- 
ties which  have  hindered  our  faith  ?  That  Jesus 
should  be  sent  to  die  for  us  seems  against  the  liberty 
of  the  Eternal  Son,  and  a  shadow  upon  His  just 
blessedness.  It  is  true  He  came  in  the  form  of  a 
servant.  Such  representations  are  necessary  to  safe- 
guard the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty,  for  if 
the  Father  be  not  engaged  in  this  solemn  and  myste- 
rious work,  the  atonement  made  by  the  Son  can  have 
no  assured  validity.  But  no  servant  with  a  servant's 
temper  could  accomplish  this  task.  It  must  be  the 
free  act  of  filial  love.  And  when  we  look  into  the 
mind  of  the  Son  we  find  that  His  sacrificial  work  is 
freer  than  the  freest  human  acts,  loving  beyond  the 
most  devoted  human  service  ;  and  the  two  things  are 
the  two  sides  of  one  and  the  same  truth.  The  love 
which  saves  men  if  it  is  infinite  must  be  infinitely 
free. 

The  spirit  of  our  Lord's  surrender  to  the  Divine 


THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD  93 

will  foreshadowed    the   free  obedience  He  hoped  to 
create  in   His   redeemed  people.      Obedience  at  its 
best  had  hitherto  been  an  outward  formality  lacking 
the  highest   motive-power.      The  conscience   of  the 
most  religious  nations  had    been    satisfied    by   con- 
formity to  visible  tests  and  standards.      The  setting 
up  of  the  Cross  was  a  call  to  the  future  ages  for 
a   moral    and    spiritual    service,    free    and   winsome 
as  the  genius  of  life  itself     It   was    the   beginning 
of  a  new  heaven  and   earth,  the  abodes  of  inward 
righteousness.      The    root    of  this    Divine   grace   is 
destined    to   fill   with    colour,    fragrance,   and    har- 
monious  music  this  black,  evil,  warring    world.      It 
is    our    slow-moving,    reluctant    righteousness,    the 
temper  of  constraint  in    our   habits   of  law-keeping, 
the  grudging  vein  in  our  sacrifice  and  consecration, 
which    makes   the   world    so    unlike    God's   purpose 
concerning   it.      If  there   were    no   trespass    in    our 
world,  whilst  the  last  touch  of  compulsion  lingered 
in   its  virtue  and  outward  piety,  it  would  still  have 
the   shadow   of  inward   blemish  upon   its  activities, 
for  it  would  be  not  a  household  of  free  and  rejoicing 
sons    but  a  colony  of  disciplined  slaves.      Keeping 
an   outward  precept  whilst  there  is   no  spontaneity 
of  holy  and    unselfish  consecration,  no   gladness    of 
love   in   its   ministries  would   stamp  the  world   as  a 
gilded  Pandemonium  with  burning  heartache  at  its 
core.      If  the   yoke   of   spiritual    perfection   weighs 
heavily  on   men's  shoulders,   no  light  can  shine,  no 
melody   entrance,    no    rapture   thrill    through    their 
acts  of  formal  obedience.     The  Cross  was  to  introduce 
a  new  order  and  set  up  an  inward  standard. 

The  obedience  which  is  reluctant,  grudging,  morose, 
has  no  promise  of  endurance  and  triumphant  perfec- 


94  THE    MESSIANIC   WATCHWORD 

tion  within  it.  A  granary  in  one  of  the  cities  of 
Holland,  built  upon  stakes  and  piles,  driven  into 
a  sandbank,  sank  and  disappeared  from  view  with 
all  its  freight  of  food.  It  was  overweighted.  And 
the  harvests  of  a  scrupulous,  life-long,  outward  piety 
may  sink  into  oblivion  if  the  soul  is  pressed  down 
by  vexation,  discontent,  and  all  the  strain  of  an 
incomplete  surrender  to  God's  will.  We  may  burden 
our  pieties  by  superfluous  asceticisms,  by  the  invention 
of  fictitious  duties,  by  worldly  views  of  the  hardness 
of  Christ's  precepts,  till  at  last  the  fabric  may  vanish, 
and  if  saved  at  all  it  will  be  with  those  whose  works 
are  destroyed.  Obedience  to  God's  call  must  follow 
the  pattern  of  the  Master's  in  His  incomparably 
higher  work  and  be  joyful  and  inward. 


VI 

THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 


"  Him  who  knew  no  sin  He  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf  ; 
that  we  might  become  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him." — 
2  Cor.  v.  21. 


The  Apostle's  words  refer  to  those  sufferings  which 
were  endured  for  men  by  Jesus  Christ  to  effect 
their  reconciHation  with  God,  and  imply  that  the 
sufferings  were  both  penal  and  vicarious.  It  is  vain 
for  us  to  suffuse  ourselves  in  meditations  upon  the 
Passion  of  the  Cross,  unless  we  realise  what  the 
Cross  achieved,  and  our  personal  interest  in  its 
benefits.  The  primary  aim  of  the  Cross  is  to  create 
new  character,  but  it  can  only  create  new  character 
by  removing  the  tremendous  disabilities  of  the  past 
and  putting  the  offender  against  God  into  a  new 
status.  Character  cannot  grow  better  whilst  it  is 
weighed  down  by  clouds  electric  with  black  con- 
demnation. Its  only  chance  is  in  benign  sympathy 
and  forgiving  tenderness.  The  revised  gospel  of 
the  hour  asserts  that  men  are  redeemed  by  revela- 
tions of  love  made  to  the  reason,  the  conscience, 
and  the  affections  in  the  death  of  Christ ;  but  this 

95 


96  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

is  only  half  a  truth,  the  secondary  and  not  the 
primary  intention  of  the  Atonement.  In  the  govern- 
ment of  God  there  is  a  non-imputation  of  trespasses 
which  precedes  the  message  preached  to  men,  and 
to  beseech  men  to  be  reconciled,  unless  the  argument 
rests  upon  a  pre-existing  fact,  is  not  a  gospel  but 
the  precept  of  a  law.  New  theories  upon  this  vital 
subject  do  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  produce  the 
old  experience,  and  if  we  are  to  recover  the  strong, 
joyful  assurance,  which  was  the  glory  of  the  earlier 
generations  of  believers,  we  shall  have  to  get  back 
somewhere  near  their  old  standing-ground  by  the 
Cross.  To  the  recovery  of  the  lost  foothold  our  text 
surely  guides  us. 

St.  Paul's  words  present  us  with  an  accurately- 
balanced  antithesis.  Jesus  was  made  sin  for  us,  so 
that,  through  our  union  with  His  person,  we  might 
become  righteous  in  God's  reckoning.  The  two 
parts  of  the  statement  are  coextensive,  and  must 
correspond  with  each  other.  In  due  time  we  must, 
of  course,  attain  actual  righteousness  of  nature,  but  this 
is  not  within  the  Apostle's  immediate  thought,  for 
the  contrast  to  personal  righteousness  in  us  would 
be  actual  sin  in  Christ,  an  idea  which  is  repugnant 
and  profane.  For  the  moment,  the  inspired  writer 
is  thinking  of  status  before  the  law,  and  of  that  only. 
Jesus  assumes  the  burden  of  our  guilt  and  shame, 
as  though  it  were  His  very  own  ;  and  we  enter  into 
His  standing  of  favour  and  acceptance  before  God. 
By  His  self-abasement  and  by  His  Passion  on  the 
Cross,  Jesus,  who  was  without  sin,  changed  our 
relationship  to  the  holy  God. 

For  some  years   past  there   has   been    an    outcry 
against   the   doctrine   of  substitution,   and    perhaps 


THE    VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  97 


we  needed  to  be  warned  against  some  of  the  dangers 
attaching  to  old  forms  of  stating  the  doctrine, 
but  the  danger  is  now  at  the  other  extreme,  and 
the  echoes  of  this  outcry  still  disquiet  and  distract 
us.  At  the  root  of  our  repugnance  to  the  doctrine 
of  a  vicarious  Atonement  there  is  the  despotic 
tradition  of  a  selfish,  exaggerated,  and  all  but 
obsolete  individualism.  We  bring  into  our  ethics 
and  into  our  theology  the  economic  maxim  of  a 
ruthless  commercialism, — that  men  are  only  entitled 
to  that  which  they  can  earn  by  their  personal  service. 
But  the  vicarious  principle  has  its  foundation  in 
Nature,  and  in  the  New  Testament  statements  of 
the  great  doctrine  of  redemption,  is  safeguarded 
against  misapplication  and  abuse. 

In  his  search  for  parallels  to  this  vicarious  law 
the  popular  theologian  has  ransacked  every  de- 
partment of  physics  and  zoology.  The  forces  of 
the  inorganic  world,  he  reminds  us,  have  acted  as 
man's  uncomplaining  helper  and  substitute  through 
all  stages  of  his  development,  and  do  so  still.  The 
sun  has  been  a  storehouse  of  energy  upon  which 
he  has  drawn  in  many  ways.  Frost  and  rain,  storm 
and  flood,  have  preceded  his  husbandries,  breaking 
down  rocks  and  making  ready  the  soil  which  yields 
his  food.  Winds  and  tides  aided  him  in  his  weak- 
ness and  made  light  his  toils.  The  flower,  the  vine, 
and  the  corn-stalk  root  themselves  in  the  rack 
of  past  convulsions,  and  bloom  in  the  graveyards 
of  forgotten  worlds.  It  is  upon  the  sacrifice  of 
inorganic  things  that  Nature  builds  the  lowest  forms 
of  organic  life.  If  the  factor  of  substitution  had 
not  come  into  play  man  must  needs  have  generated 
his  own  light  and  heat,  and  have  devised  some  plan 

8 


98  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPEXSATIOX 

of  extracting  from  space  chemical  foods  for  his 
sustenance.  A  self-contained  creature,  in  no  sense 
whatever  beholden  to  the  ministries  of  Nature,  is 
a  contradiction  of  terms.  This,  of  course,  is  perfectly 
true,  but  the  argument  is  irrelevant  and  far-fetched. 
The  forces  which  underlie  the  beginnings  of  life 
are  moved  by  no  principle  of  goodwill,  and  self- 
sacrifice  does  not  here  come  into  the  question,  unless 
we  assume  with  the  animist,  that  rocks  and  winds, 
storms  and  thunder-clouds,  have  indwelling  spirits  ; 
and  that  in  the  work  to  which  they  yield  themselves 
there  is  conscious  choice  and  the  sense  of  pain. 
These  age-long  processes  cannot  be  brought  into  an 
ethical  category. 

Neither  can  the  vicarious  analogies,  upon  which 
we  alight  as  we  rise  in  the  scale  of  being,  altogether 
satisfy  the  reason  and  the  conscience.  Flowers 
secrete  nectar  for  the  bee,  and  the  bee  stores  honey 
which  is  annexed  by  man.  Birds  shelter  their  young 
in  nests  fashioned  from  the  mosses  of  the  hedgerow 
and  the  wool  of  the  sheepfolds.  Insectivorous  plants 
live  by  preying  upon  a  life  which  is  more  highly 
organised  than  their  own.  Man  himself  sublets  his 
toil,  clothes  his  bod}-,  and  feeds  his  strength  by 
subduing  animal  life  to  his  will.  But  this  com- 
pulsory vicariousness  scarcely  helps  our  theology. 
It  might  put  another  aspect  upon  the  subject  if  we 
could  know  what  the  animals  have  to  say  from  their 
side  of  the  question.  There  can  be  no  true  vicarious- 
ness till  conscious  love  begins  and  the  sacrifice  is 
thought  out  and  chosen. 

Life  dawns  through  the  operation  of  a  vicarious 
principle,  and  motherhood  is  a  classic  illustra- 
tion  of   the    law.       A   substitute    means   one    who 


THE  VICARIOUS  DISPENSATION  99 

is  stood  under  another  to  uphold  his  weakness 
or  to  sustain  obligations  on  his  behalf  for  whidi 
he  himself  is  not  fit.  The  strength  of  a  mother  bear? 
up  her  offspring  in  the  fragile  beginnings  of  its 
being.  Her  functions  play  a  ^^cariou5  part  on  behalf 
of  the  new  and  imp>erfect  life,  which  is  informed  and 
energised  from  her  resources.  Her  senses  act  in 
place  of  the  unde\-eloped  senses  of  the  infanL  She 
lives  and  breathes,  eats  and  drinks,  moves  and  acts 
for  one  helpless  as  a  foundling  of  the  prairie  The 
eye  watches,  the  ear  attends,  the  hands  move  on 
behalf  of  another,  who  cannot  as  yet  do  these  things, 
or  can  do  them  ver\'  imf>erfect]y.  The  first  promise 
of  redemption  linked  itself  with  a  birth,  for  not  only 
did  the  birth  bring  the  seed  of  the  woman  into  the 
scene  of  His  conflict  and  triumph,  but  the  birth  itself 
was  emblematic,  setting  forth  a  law  under  which 
the  endowments  of  one  life  minister  to  a  life  wfaidi 
is  yet  in  the  making.  Where  sentient  creatures 
are  ushered  into  the  world  fully  equipped  for  the 
strug^gle  to  5ur\-ive.  little  or  no  natural  affection 
is  evoked.  You  look  in  -^"^in  for  famDy  sentiments 
amongst  those  orders  of  insects  which  emerge  in 
the  spring  from  lar\-aE  deposited  months  before 
by  a  generation  of  vanished  parents.  The  ostrich 
is  said  to  leave  its  eggs  in  the  sand  to  be  hatched 
by  the  heat  of  the  sun.  A  bird  in  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago constructs  an  incubator  of  fermenting  leaves, 
and,  as  soon  as  the  forsaken  chick  is  released,  instinct 
directs  it  to  the  forest  where  it  may  find  food  and 
defence.  Xo  trace  of  the  moral  sentiments  can  arise 
under  such  conditions.  The  babe  who,  equipped 
like  the  infant  Hercules  for  defence  or  attack  from 
the    beginning,   can    strangle   serpents    around    its 


loo  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

cradle,  is  not  likely  to  grow  up  a  model  of  filial 
piety.  No  debt  for  the  guardianship  and  nurture 
of  helpless  days  and  nights  would  be  felt.  A  planet 
peopled  by  such  sturdy,  robust,  self-contained  pro- 
digies would  be  bleak,  loveless,  desolate.  It  is  the 
vicarious  principle  which  humanises  all  the  fibres 
of  our  life.  There  can  be  no  love  without  it.  It 
is  from  weakness  and  the  benign  strength  which 
upholds  it  that  the  nursery  and  the  home  derive 
their  atmosphere  of  moral  charm.  If  we  could 
devise  a  new  birthplace  and  breeding-ground  for 
the  human  race,  in  which  this  principle  had  no  hold, 
we  might  find  that  we  had  invented  hell.  Apathy, 
crime,  and  rampant  hooliganism  would  be  the  rule, 
if  vicarious  mothering  were  to  cease.  The  measure 
of  a  being's  indebtedness  to  the  care  of  others  is 
the  measure  of  all  his  moral  possibilities  in  the 
after-years. 

The  vicarious  pains  and  toils  of  the  mother  for  her 
growing  child  are  shared  by  the  head  of  the  home,  as 
he  goes  forth  to  his  daily  tasks  in  the  world.  The 
gold  and  silver,  with  which  his  little  ones  are  fed  and 
clothed,  sheltered  and  taught,  are  symbols  of  substi- 
tution in  humbler  forms  of  embodiment,  no  less  than 
the  Cross  itself.  And  if  the  law  of  labour  has  still 
mingled  with  it  the  elements  of  a  primeval  curse,  as 
well  as  much  of  blessing,  the  substitution  is  to  some 
extent  penal.  Leaving  out  of  the  reckoning  unearned 
increments  and  tolls  taken  from  the  community  by 
speculative  finance,  the  stamped  coin  is  a  token  of 
so  much  thought,  toil,  strain  and  weariness  endured 
to  meet  not  only  the  workers'  own  needs,  but  for 
the  sake  of  others  also.  Children  not  fit  for  the 
duties  of  self-support  constitute  the  majority  in  the 


THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  loi 


population  of  every  land,  and  75  per  cent,  of 
the  labour  of  the  world  is  therefore  vicarious.  The 
Government  has  simply  stamped  the  precious  metal 
with  the  standard  value  that  gives  it  currency.  No 
worthier  use  can  be  made  of  that  which  is  sometimes 
described  as  "unrighteous  mammon,"  than  to  purchase 
for  children  those  blessings  of  civilisation  and  those 
amenities  of  life,  which  for  years  to  come  they  will  be 
unable  to  earn  by  their  independent  toil.  A  just  and 
equal  standing-ground  must  be  won  for  them  in  the 
world,  and  won  before  they  are  able  to  occupy  it. 
All  are  the  beneficiaries  of  a  vicarious  law.  The 
father  puts  his  sinewy  frame  under  the  frail  forms  of 
the  little  ones,  giving  himself  in  their  stead  to  toil, 
privation,  and  all  too  often,  because  of  the  hard 
conditions  of  modern  labour,  to  premature  death. 
That  is  the  price  of  their  continued  well-being. 
Many  a  man  c^n  only  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door 
at  the  price  of  feeling  its  fangs  in  his  own  flesh.  It 
may  be  said,  property  is  often  inherited  and  one  part 
of  the  world  has  no  need  to  toil  or  spin.  Putting 
aside  the  cases  in  which  property  has  been  un- 
righteously acquired,  where  it  is  inherited  it  repre- 
sents the  thrift,  self-sacrifice,  and  industry  of  a 
bygone  generation,  and  the  vicarious  law  is  only 
put  back  in  its  incidence  a  few  tens  or  hundreds 
of  years.  If  the  dream  of  some  social  reformers  were 
realised  and  the  State  were  to  feed  and  clothe  all 
children,  there  would  be  no  escape  from  this  principle, 
for  the  State  would  then  act  for  the  child  in  the  days 
of  its  weakness  and  incapacity,  and  the  toils  and 
sacrifices  of  parents  for  their  offspring  would  be 
subdivided  into  smaller  quotients  amongst  all  the 
citizens.    That  would  be  reverting  to  a  custom  which 


102  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

prevails  amongst  certain  tribes  of  low  culture  where 
children  belong  to  the  clan.  We  could  not  live  in 
a  world  from  which  the  vicarious  principle  was 
excluded,  any  more  than  we  could  live  in  a  world 
covered  from  pole  to  pole  with  glaciers.  In  the  years 
of  our  weakness  we  have  been  upheld  by  the  strength 
of  others,  and  our  genial  lot  has  been  made  by 
unselfish   predecessors. 

Our  indebtedness  to  the  vicarious  order  does  not 
end  with  childhood.  However  strongly  we  may 
resent  any  modifications  of  the  rights  of  property,  as 
understood  by  the  last  generation  of  political  econo- 
mists, we  all  recognise  the  fitness  of  a  limited  family 
communism,  and  the  law  of  the  State  gives  its 
sanction  to  the  principle.  If  correct  sentiments  rule 
a  home,  the  elemental  gifts  needful  for  life  and 
godliness  are  shared  by  all  the  members,  whether 
they  contribute  in  equal  proportion  ^p  the  common 
stock  or  not.  When  a  man  is  the  victim  of  sickness 
or  misfortune  he  has  no  scruple  at  receiving  help 
from  those  who  are  of  his  own  flesh  and  blood, 
whilst  perhaps  he  would  feel  his  independence 
compromised  if  he  were  to  become  a  pensioner  of 
the  State.  Amongst  some  of  the  highly  civilised 
peoples  of  the  East,  where  primitive  clanships  still 
survive,  corporate  properties  are  held  for  the  benefit 
of  all  affiliated  to  certain  groups  of  families,  and  the 
poor  and  the  ill-starred  are  rarely  left  to  hunger  and 
nakedness.  This  stated  in  other  words  means  that 
the  bygone  founders  of  certain  villages  tilled  and 
toiled  for  the  benefit  of  unborn  descendants,  and 
the  contemporary  generation  perhaps  has  added  to 
the  clan-revenues  by  skill,  industry  and  self-denial. 
In   some  parts  of  China,   tumble-down  villages   are 


THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  103 

frequently  rebuilt  for  allied  groups  of  families,  out  of 
the  savings  of  two  or  three  returned  emigrants.  The 
resources  accumulated  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  few  are 
placed  at  the  service  of  all  and  the  clan  tradition 
requires  it.  This  principle  was  the  root  idea  of  those 
guilds  and  companies  which  were  founded  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  There  are  social  reformers  who  would 
like  to  turn  the  fabric  of  modern  society  into  an 
enormous  clan,  with  a  common  fund  out  of  which 
equal  distribution  could  be  made  ;  and  perhaps  if  we 
had  the  clansman's  sense  of  kinship  we  should  not  be 
staggered  by  the  proposal.  The  vicarious  law  would 
necessarily  come  into  play  unless  you  could  make 
sure  that  each  man  would  draw  out  only  what  he  put 
in.  On  behalf  of  the  helpless  and  the  forlorn  we 
recognise  a  collectivism  which  involves  a  vicarious 
principle.  The  State  makes  its  indent  upon  our 
money,  which  is  labour,  for  the  aged  poor  and  the 
incurably  diseased.  We  should  need  to  kill  them 
unless  they  could  be  sustained  by  the  substituted 
toils  of  their  neighbours.  Whilst  we  challenge  and 
impeach  and  travesty  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  sacri- 
fice as  expressed  in  the  Cross  of  Jesus,  we  honour 
it  to  the  utmost  when  it  takes  shape  as  a  social 
philanthropy  ;  and  the  inconsistency  is  glaring.  The 
citizen  who  toils  and  stints  himself  for  fifty  years 
to  build  an  orphan  home  or  a  cripples'  refuge  we 
acclaim  as  a  hero  in  spite  of  our  dread  of  this  same 
root-principle  in  theology ;  and  yet  everything  he 
has  done  is  in  virtue  of  a  vicarious  law.  He  has 
been  a  noble  substitute  putting  his  strength,  his 
wisdom,  his  large-heartedness,  his  garnered  resources 
under  the  helpless  lives  which  were  ready  to  perish. 
This    substitutionary    law   is    the    foundation    of 


104  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

civilised  life  and  citizenship.     It  rules  through  every 
stage  in  the  evolution  of  national  greatness.     We  are 
not  the  creators  of  those  facilities  and  contrivances 
which  smooth  the  roughnesses  of  the  daily  pathway 
and    refine   our    modern    life.       Now   and   again    an 
inventor  lives  to  reap  the  fruit  of  his  labours,  but  not 
a  few  of  the  things,  which  increase  our  power  and 
contribute    to    our    comfort   were   devised    by   men 
who   endured    privations,  and  whose  work   was    not 
recognised  by  their  contemporaries.     We  enter  into 
an  inheritance  of  rights  and  privileges  made  ready 
by  the  sacrifice  of  others.     We  have  only  to  think  of 
the  terrible  price  which  is   being  paid  for  civil  and 
religious    liberty    at    this    very   hour    in    Russia,   to 
realise  the  debt  we  owe  to  our  own  forefathers.     Just 
and  equal  laws  have  been  secured  for  us  by  men  who 
never   enjoyed    the   grand    harvest   they   had    sown 
in  blood.     The  commonwealth  to  which  we  belong 
was  founded,  and  has  been  guarded  against  violation, 
by   many    martyrdoms.      When    we   pay   rates   and 
taxes,  grievous  to  be  borne,  we  perhaps  think  that 
we  pay  to  the  uttermost  farthing  for  all  we  get.     We 
only  pay  the  cost  of  the  upkeep,  and  this  does  not 
always  reach  those  who  deserve  most  at  our  hands. 
Patriots,  who  made  nothing  for  themselves  out  of  the 
cult,  suffered   to  free  posterity.      Their  goods  were 
spoiled,  they  fought  on   battle-fields,  they  mounted 
scaffolds  ;    and  we  possess  the  patrimony  they  won 
for   us.     Their   agonies   took    the   place   of  agonies 
which  would  have  been  exacted  from  us,  if  the  day 
of  redemption  had  been  put  off  to  our  century.     "  By 
their  stripes  we  are  healed."     The  principle  of  substi- 
tution is  the  chief  corner-stone  of  all  worthy  citizen- 
ship.    If  you   resent  the  thought  and  desire  to  be 


THE   VICARIOUS   DISPP:NSATI0N  105 


quite  consistent,  you  must  emigrate  to  a  country 
under  the  heel  of  Grand  Dukes  and  through  personal 
struggle  win  your  own  civic  franchise.  If  a  vicarious 
law  is  not  to  be  admitted  into  your  life,  seek  out  a 
desert  island  and  found  a  one-man  colony.  Your 
children  also  must  needs  be  planted  out  after  the 
same  fashion,  or  you  will  make  them  your  debtors  in 
virtue  of  this  inevitable  principle.  Whatever  may 
have  been  bequeathed  to  you  by  forefathers  should 
be  burned,  as  barbarian  tribes  burn  the  clothes  and 
weapons  of  their  departed  chiefs,  or  you  will  not 
escape  the  noxious  and  inequitable  law.  But  this 
surely  would  be  individualism  run  mad.  There  can 
be  no  inheritance  without  vicariousness.  Nature 
makes  us  all  coUectivists,  up  to  a  certain  point,  and 
compels  us  to  accept  the  fruit  of  other  men's  sacrifice 
and  labour.  The  communism  which  is  originated 
and  informed  by  love,  and  not  by  force,  is  surely 
lawful,  and  love  cannot  be  otherwise  than  vicarious. 
This  principle  is  interwoven  with  all  intellectual 
life.  Art,  music,  literature  are  not  the  first-hand 
inventions  of  those  who  occupy  themselves  in  these 
pursuits  and  enter  into  their  high  pleasures.  We 
owe  a  debt  to  the  research  and  unrequited  endeavour 
of  hosts  of  forgotten  pioneers.  In  these  later  cycles 
of  time  we  reap  what  others  sowed  under  condi- 
tions of  hardship  and  distress.  The  harmonies  of 
preceding  musicians  tremble  in  our  modern  anthems 
and  sonatas,  musicians  who  were  slighted,  aggrieved, 
thrust  aside.  Earlier  schools  of  artists,  neglected  for 
generations,  made  ready  for  later  and  more  successful 
schools,  and  the  achievements  not  only  of  those  whose 
names  are  household  words,  but  of  unknown  path- 
finders, have   determined    the   ideals   and   made  the 


io6  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

brilliant  successes  we  find  in  our  galleries  and  exhibi- 
tions at  the  present  day.  Plato,  Chaucer,  and  the 
blind  Milton  have,  directly  or  indirectly,  moulded  the 
style  of  every  master  in  modern  literature.  The 
brain  activity  of  a  great  author,  perpetuated  through 
his  printed  page,  becomes  a  mainspring  of  thought  in 
the  stimulated  reader  of  his  works.  The  faculties  of 
the  first  man  are  put  under  the  limpness  and  languor 
of  the  second  man  who  derives  delight  and  invigora- 
tion  from  his  writing.  If  I  go  to  my  book-shelf  for  the 
delight  of  fellowship  with  great  minds,  the  warmth  of 
zeal,  the  glow  of  feeling,  the  subtlety  of  taste  in  the 
guide  I  select,  strengthen  divers  processes  of  thought 
in  me.  In  the  intellectual  sphere,  I  am  just  as  much 
dependent  at  the  outset  upon  the  nutrition  ministered 
by  another,  as  the  babe  is  in  the  physiological  sphere. 
Pictures,  oratorios,  great  poems  do  not  suddenly 
spring  up  amongst  the  Patagonians.  Such  things 
can  only  arise  where  there  is  a  slowly  accumulated 
inheritance  of  culture.  There  is  no  inventiveness  or 
spirit  of  discovery  without  earlier  labours  to  furnish 
a  base-line  from  which  further  progress  begins. 
Minds,  which  have  already  travailed  in  pain  and 
brought  forth  great  things,  act  upon  mine  and  dispel 
the  stupor  to  which  it  is  prone.  The  vicarious  law 
rules  the  play  and  interchange  of  all  thought. 
Unless  we  are  to  sink  into  imbecility  we  cannot 
decline  this  law  and  live  outside  its  ranges. 

Sympathy,  by  common  consent  one  of  the  holiest 
and  most  influential  forces  in  social  life,  is  a  vicarious 
emotion.  Its  presence  implies  that  we  are  putting 
ourselves  into  another  man's  place  and  participating 
in  his  experiences.  By  an  act  of  imagination  we  bring 
our  sensibilities  into  unison  with  kindred  sensibilities 


THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION         .      107 

in  groups  of  sufferers  and  so  enter  into  their  lot. 
There  has  been  a  mental  substitution  of  our  per- 
sonaHty  for  that  of  a  neighbour  who  is  racked  with 
pain,  stricken  by  tragic  bereavement,  or  wallowing  in 
want  and  abject  privation.  It  is  quite  possible  we 
may  suffer  as  much  as  the  ill-fated  victim  himself,  or 
even  more,  if  his  temperament  chance  to  be  slow  and 
stolid.  By  an  act  of  mental  transmigration  we  share 
the  dire  conditions  of  another,'  and  the  process  may 
be  momentary  or  persistent.  This  act  of  thinking 
ourselves  into  another's  place  may  be  so  vivid  that 
his  trouble  will  continue  to  haunt  us  for  years.  Who 
will  venture  to  deny  that  there  is  the  dawn  of  a  great 
virtue,  in  every  generous  impulse  which  compels  us 
to  put  ourselves  at  the  standpoint  of  a  sufferer? 
Sympathy  when  divorced  from  wise,  practical  action 
may  cease  to  be  a  virtue.  It  may  pass  into  hypo- 
crisy, and  be  cherished  because  of  the  sense  of 
spurious  self-approval  to  which  it  ministers.  But  all 
the  same,  we  are  bound  to  recognise  that  it  is  the 
source  of  altruism,  and  that  the  sincere  emotion  is 
one  of  the  great  healing  forces  at  work  in  a  woe- 
begone world.  We  extend  some  measure  of  sym- 
pathy even  to  the  undeserving,  especially  when  they 
begin  to  eat  of  the  bitter  fruit  of  their  doings.  A 
father  or  mother  would  be  quite  unworthy  of  the 
name,  if  they  lacked  sympathy  in  thinking  of  an 
offending  child  and  devising  wise  methods  of  dealing 
with  him.  Vicarious  emotion  is  the  beginning  of 
vicarious  action,  and  both  are  surely  good,  and  in  no 
sense  adverse  to  the  rational  equities  of  society.  We 
are  the  channels  of  a  common  emotional  life,  and 
sympathy  is  the  necessary  complement  to  that  social 
solidarity,   which    is    as    much    a    fact    as   our   own 


io8  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

personality.  If  substitution  is  an  immoral  expedient, 
it  is  as  much  so  in  the  realm  of  mind  as  in  the  world 
of  the  senses  ;  it  may  be  more  so,  for  many  have  a 
keener  susceptibility  to  mental  than  to  physical  pain. 
There  is  a  substitutionary  element  in  all  unselfishness 
and  the  vicarious  law  only  becomes  a  demoralising 
license  when  it  is  pushed  beyond  its  appointed 
limits. 

The  fact  that  the  vicarious  principle,  expressed  in 
the  Atonement,  may  be  grossly  abused  does  not  in- 
validate it.  It  is  abused  in  common  life,  and  we  are 
confronted  with  an  intractable  difficulty  in  solving 
our  social  problems.  That  the  child,  the  cripple,  the 
victim  of  grievous  misfortune  should  have  the  full 
benefit  of  this  kindly  principle  is  simple  justice,  not 
to  speak  of  charity.  But  we  protest  when  we  see  a 
lazy,  thriftless,  dissolute  son  living  on  the  toils  and 
sacrifices  of  his  parents,  and  vicious,  insolent,  unem- 
ployable members  of  the  community  eating  the  honey 
gathered  by  their  more  industrious  neighbours.  Half 
the  tramps  on  our  highways  are  bent  on  exploiting 
the  good  nature  of  their  countrymen,  and  do  not 
ever  intend  to  do  a  hand's  turn  of  work.  The  doc- 
trine may  be  turned  to  licentiousness,  just  as  the 
drug  of  healing  virtue  may  become  the  occasion  of  a 
new  debauchery.  But  the  gracious  law  reigns  in 
human  life,  and  ought  to  reign.  We  disentitle  our- 
selves to  the  redemptive  benefits  of  the  law  if  we 
mean  at  any  future  time  to  ignore  our  common 
duties.  The  Cross,  whatever  temporary  help  it  may 
bring  to  us  in  our  dire  emergency,  does  not  finally 
abrogate  responsibility,  but  restores  and  solemnly 
reaffirms  it.  It  saves  our  sense  of  responsibility 
from    being    engulfed    in    the   deep   despair   which, 


THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  109 

sooner  or  later,  follows  sin.  It  is  during  the  frail 
and  unhappy  childhood  of  our  momentous  being, 
when  guilt  and  misfortune  are  strangely  mixed,  that 
Jesus  Christ  puts  Himself  under  us  and  becomes  our 
substitute.  He  cherishes  us  in  the  crisis  of  incompe- 
tence, and  having  delivered  us  from  the  doom  against 
which  we  were  too  weak  to  wrestle,  makes  us  strong 
for  active  righteousness.  The  Cross,  whilst  atoning 
for  transgression,  binds  the  transgressor  to  higher  and 
nobler  precepts.  A  new  foundation  for  responsi- 
bility is  laid,  and  from  the  fearfulness  and  angry 
chaos  of  the  past  a  fresh  consciousness  of  obligation 
is  born.  However  injudicious  and  exaggerated  some 
methods  of  stating  the  doctrine  may  have  been,  there 
is  to  be  no  dismantling  of  man's  moral  nature.  The 
doctrine  of  a  vicarious  Atonement  is  clear  from  the 
impeachment  which  the  unbelieving  controversialist 
would  sometimes  direct  against  it.  It  more  than 
justifies  itself  by  the  moral  changes  it  produces.  Dr. 
James  Martineau,  in  the  latest  volume  of  his 
addresses,  admits  that  it  quickens  the  moral  life  and 
does  not  tend  to  practical  lawlessness.  It  recovers 
for  man  his  lost  self-sovereignty,  and  saves  from  that 
maelstrom  of  necessarianism  into  which  he  drifts, 
when  the  sense  of  his  helplessness  is  not  counter- 
acted by  those  hopes  which  the  preaching  of  this 
specific  gospel  awakens.  St.  Paul  does  not  for  a 
moment  assume  that  man's  part  in  working  out 
salvation  is  superseded  by  the  Cross.  After  the 
strong  statement  of  our  text  he  goes  on  to  plead, 
"  Labouring  together  with  him,  we  beseech  you  that 
ye  receive  not  the  grace  of  God  in  vain." 

But  it  is  not  so  much  the  vicarious  as  the  penal 
element  in  the  old  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  which 


no  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

is  repugnant  to  us.  That  one  who  is  holy,  harmless, 
undefiled,  separate  from  sinners,  should  have  to  bear 
our  just  retribution,  or  any  portion  of  it,  is  an  offence 
to  our  best  sensibilities.  But  mysterious  as  the  law 
may  be,  this  is  only  an  extreme  example  of  what 
daily  takes  place  in  our  midst,  and  human  society 
would  be  impossible  if  it  were  otherwise  ordered. 
Labour,  when  conducted  under  the  most  humane 
conditions,  still  has  traces  in  it  of  a  primeval  penalty, 
so  that  he  who  tills  the  soil  or  drudges  in  a  workshop 
for  others,  is  bearing  a  vicarious  burden  to  satisfy  a 
broken  law.  The  stumbling-block  of  the  Cross  is 
present  in  some  degree  within  the  home  and  the 
community.  The  mother  puts  her  strength  under- 
neath and  round  about  the  child  who  has  been 
burned  by  playing  with  forbidden  fire  or  brought  on 
pneumonia  by  fractiously  loitering  in  the  rain  and 
the  cold  of  approaching  night.  She  bears,  for  weeks 
and  months,  one  half  of  the  penalty  incurred  by  dis- 
obedience to  her  own  commands.  That  sympathy 
which  the  vicarious  mind  exhales,  like  a  healing 
balm,  is  extended  to  the  scourged  and  penalised 
transgressor,  if  at  least  he  is  not  defiantly  impenitent 
and  irreclaimable.  We  remember  that  the  delin- 
quent was  tempted,  over-persuaded  by  foolish  com- 
panions, hard-beset,  and  that  kindness  may  perhaps 
win  him  back  into  right  paths.  The  prodigal  of  a 
virtuous  family  lies  on  a  plank-bed,  but  he  gives  to 
those  who  are  of  his  own  flesh  and  blood  many  a 
night  of  restlessness  and  torment.  As  a  community 
we  pay  in  hard  cash  for  our  neighbour's  vices  and 
crimes,  because  we  cannot  leave  prisoners  to  starve, 
as  is  the  practice  in  Turkish  and  Chinese  gaols.  A 
village    feels   its   very   cottages    tarnished    and   dis- 


THE   VICARIOUS    DISPENSATION  iti 

honoured  by  the  felon  bred  there.  The  juryman  who 
consents  to  a  verdict,  the  judge  who  passes  a  capital 
sentence,  the  king  who  signs  a  death-warrant,  the 
inhabitants  of  a  district  in  which  an  execution  takes 
place,  suffer  distress,  if  they  are  of  normal  sensitive- 
ness. The  lives  of  children  may  be  quite  over- 
shadowed by  the  conviction  of  a  parent  or  a 
companion.  We  bear  one  another's  burdens,  whether 
we  wish  it  or  not.  This  principle  is  recognised  in 
the  Statute  Book  of  the  realm.  When  a  man  has 
the  alternative  of  fine  or  imprisonment  the  fine  may 
be  paid  by  his  friends ; — a  survival  perhaps  from  the 
law  of  associated  responsibility. 

Jesus  Christ  introduces  this  principle  of  the  ransom 
into  our  relations  with  the  invisible  universe  and  its 
holy  God,  exemplifying  it  upon  a  scale  of  incon- 
ceivable vastness.  As  the  only  -  begotten  Son, 
sharing  the  infinite  and  eternal  holiness  of  the 
Divine  nature.  He  can  make  uses  of  this  vicarious 
principle  impossible  within  the  range  of  an  arch- 
angel's life. 

Perhaps  our  objection  to  believe  in  an  Atonement 
set  forth  under  legal  forms  rests  in  part  upon  the 
fact  that  the  laws  of  earthly  realms  are  sometimes 
far  from  perfect,  and  their  administration  is  now  and 
again  in  the  hands  of  blind  and  inept  blunderers. 
The  very  term  forensic,  by  which  certain  thinkers  try 
to  discredit  one  aspect  of  the  Atonement,  has  asso- 
ciations of  pedantry,  incongruous  with  the  highest 
ideal  of  righteousness.  The  life  of  the  law-abiding 
man  rarely  comes  within  cognisance  of  the  courts, 
and  its  inexorable  procedures  may  be  viewed  at  a 
safe  distance.  But  we  need  to  remember  that  God's 
law  covers  all  life,  that  we  are  not  dealing  with  Him 


112  THE   VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 

in  sharply  divided  relationships  when  we  deal  with 
Him  as  a  Divine  Father  and  a  Divine  Judge,  and 
that  His  act  of  justifying  us,  through  the  virtues  of  a 
vicarious  sacrifice,  is  not  vitiated  by  the  imperfections, 
which  necessarily  attach  to  the  methods  and  sentences 
of  earthly  courts.  The  sacrifice,  moreover,  which 
satisfies  a  dishonoured  law  and  brings  us  nigh  unto 
God,  has  no  element  of  compulsion  in  it,  like  the 
vicarious  pains  and  disabilities  we  sometimes  endure 
as  members  of  defective  and  offending  human 
societies. 

In  arguing  from  these  analogies  it  is  necessary  to 
bear  in  mind  two  distinctions. 

The  highest  illustrations  of  this  vicarious  law  are 
limited  and  fragmentary.  We  give  little  bits  of  our- 
selves for  the  help  of  others,  a  fraction  only  of  our 
working  time,  a  single  faculty  of  the  brain,  a  few 
ounces  or  pounds  of  the  physical  strength.  At  the 
utmost  we  tithe  the  output  of  our  personality  for  the 
common  benefit.  Jesus  gave  Himself,  in  all  the  com- 
pleteness of  His  sublime  and  unrivalled  personality. 
Do  not  let  us  imagine  that  we  have  been  robbing  the 
vicarious  doctrine  of  its  unique  distinction  in  the 
sacrifice  which  redeems  us  because  we  have  tried  to 
vindicate  its  essential  principle  by  a  series  of  every- 
day illustrations.  The  law  is  present  in  all  history, 
but  it  reaches  an  illimitable  magnitude  in  the  Cross. 
We  see  broken  gleams  of  it  in  our  common  life,  but 
the  primal  sun,  inimitable  in  splendour,  dazzles  us 
when  we  gaze  upon  the  uplifted  victim  of  Calvary. 

There  is  a  specific  Divine  authority  for  the  sacrifice 
which  ransoms  mankind  wanting  in  the  every-day 
illustrations  of  this  principle.  God  the  Father  selects 
and  certifies  the  vicarious  offering.     "  Made  Him  to 


THE  VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  113 

be  sin  for  us."  It  was  by  an  inward  law  of  His  life, 
derived  through  eternal  communion  with  the  Father, 
that  He  became  our  substitute.  The  conscious  love, 
which  made  Him  account  the  burden  of  a  guilty  race 
His  own,  was  replenished  from  the  springs  of  this 
secret  union.  The  providence  of  the  Father  also 
appointed  and  co-adjusted  to  each  other  the  events 
under  which  He  offered  His  life  for  the  sin  of 
humanity,  and  the  witness  of  the  Father  stamped  the 
sacrifice  with  its  imperishable  significance.  "  Made 
Him  to  be  sin  for  us."  Have  courage.  Trust  the 
principle  and  the  sanctions  which  uphold  it. 

The  doctrine  needs  stating  with  discrimination. 
Now  and  again,  it  has  been  presented  as  though  the 
Redeemer's  personality,  on  the  one  hand,  were  lost 
in  the  multiple  personality  of  the  offending  race,  and 
as  though  the  believer's  past  personality,  on  the  other, 
with  all  its  inherent  imperfections,  were  lost  in  that 
of  the  Lord  to  whom  he  becomes  united.  But  no 
such  confusions  mar  God's  redemptive  government, 
or  were  allowed  to  becloud  the  consciousness  of 
Jesus.  In  the  last  desolations  the  J^ord  knew  Him- 
self to  be  the  holy  and  unblemished  Son;  and  in  all 
the  unknown  after-times  and  seasons  of  the  believer's 
history,  the  believer  still  knows  himself  to  be  one 
who  is  rescued  from  the  offending  and  shameful 
past  by  an  act  in  which  vicarious  law  has  reached 
its  last  possibility  of  power. 

Children  find  no  difficulty  in  accepting  this  doc- 
trine of  a  vicarious  sacrifice,  for  it  is  typified  and 
sanctioned  in  the  regimen  upon  which  their  early 
history  has  been  based.  Of  course  they  do  not  set 
themselves  to  justify  the  doctrine  by  formulating 
reasons  from  the  analogies  of  the  home,  its  institu- 

9 


114  THE  VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION 


tions  and  ministries ;  but  the  doctrine  is  an  im- 
measurable expression  of  the  spirit  in  which  they 
have  been  cradled,  and  upon  which  through  all  their 
days  of  weakness  they  have  been  used  to  lean. 
Neither  does  man  in  primitive  conditions  of  society 
stumble  at  the  doctrine,  for  he  is  familiar  with  the 
law  as  it  is  embodied  in  the  communism  of  his  family 
and  tribe,  and  in  the  mutual  sponsorship  of  blood 
kinsmen.  The  crippled,  contorted,  half-palsied 
sufferer  in  a  home  for  incurables  alleges  nothing 
against  the  doctrine  through  which  he  is  cherished, 
for  he  knows  that  tender-hearted  neighbours  account 
it  a  privilege  to  bear  the  burdens  which  cannot  be 
put  upon  himself  and  these  pale,  prostrate  creatures 
around  him  ;  and  surely  God  must  be  better  than 
the  most  gentle  and  compassionate  citizen.  Others 
pay  without  grudging  the  price  of  their  continued 
well-being.  The  difficulties  of  faith  begin  when  we 
are  dominated  by  the  axioms  of  a  harsh,  economic 
individualism,  and  affirm  that  a  man  is  entitled  only 
to  that  which  he  himself  can  earn. 

Perhaps  we  are  ready  to  say,  "  If  I  were  a  child  I 
could  accept  the  vicarious  law  and  be  willing  to  live 
on,  indebted  to  the  ministries  of  others  who  act  on 
my  behalf,  till  mature  years  arrive.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  system  of  Nature,  and  home,  surely,  is  the  sphere 
of  mutual  love  and  service."  Perfectly  true  ;  but  are 
we  not  all  in  the  infant  stage  of  our  being,  less  than 
babes  in  presence  of  the  tremendous  spiritual  prob- 
lems which  touch  us  and  the  gigantic  destiny  we  are 
facing  ?  and  does  not  God  wish  to  make  the  world  a 
home  of  love  and  succour,  in  which  we  can  receive 
the  benefits  of  this  vicarious  law  ? 

"  If  I   were  utterly  incapable,  I   could  consent  to 


THE  VICARIOUS   DISPENSATION  115 

profit  by  a  vicarious  law,  at  least  should  help  be 
offered  by  one  near  to  me  by  ties  of  kinship  and  in 
no  sense  a  stranger."  Exactly  ;  but  are  you  not 
helpless  and  shut  up  under  condemnation  ?  This  is 
what  the  doctrine  of  inherited  or  birth-sin  means. 
It  is  true  you  have  to  reproach  yourself  also  with 
actual  transgression,  but  if  you  had  not  been  born 
under  a  disability  you  might  not  be  able  to  claim 
and  to  take  all  that  which  is  conceded  to  one, 
who  is  in  some  sort  a  victim.  You  are  impotent  as  a 
prisoner  of  war,  crippled  with  rheumatism  or  dis- 
abled by  paralysis.  And  is  not  God  nearer  than 
your  nearest  kin,  and  more  concerned  to  bear  your 
load  ?  The  blood  of  Him  who  was  made  like  unto 
His  brethren  in  all  things  is  the  pledge  of  something 
more  sacred  and  soul-uniting  even  than  kinship. 
The  race  is  God's  family,  and  it  is  because  the  wisest 
and  best  are  but  little  ones  that  we  can  receive  the 
benefits  of  this  benign  law.  The  vicarious  sacrifice 
takes  account  of  human  weakness,  for  it  was  "  when 
we  were  without  strength  "  that  "  Christ  died  for  the 
ungodly." 

"  When  we  receive  in  childhood  the  benefits  of  a 
vicarious  law  we  expect  to  pay  it  back  to  the  world. 
I  might  bring  myself  to  accept  it  if,  in  due  time,  I 
could  only  be  allowed  to  make  some  return."  Well 
the  Cross  does  not  foreclose  your  opportunity,  but 
proclaims,  accentuates,  and  urges  it.  You  are  not  to 
be  a  pensioner  upon  this  vicarious  law  for  ever,  at 
least  not  to  the  same  extent.  True  it  is,  that  you 
will  never  be  able  to  discharge  the  debt  to  infinite 
love  under  which  you  are  placed,  but  the  Cross  is 
meant  both  to  redeem  you  by  a  vicarious  offering 
and  to  raise  you  into  co-operation  with  its  precepts 


ii6  THE   VICARIOUS    DISPENSATION 

and  grand  principles,  so  that  you  may  in  due  time 
bear  the  burdens  of  the  Lord  and  of  the  world  He 
redeemed.  The  Apostle  puts  stress  upon  this  view 
in  the  chapter  before  us.  Jesus  died  to  make  His 
sovereignty  effectual  in  the  souls  and  over  the  actions 
of  men  through  unknown  ages. 


VII 

THE   INWARDNESS   OF   REDEMPTION 

"  How  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through 
the  eternal  Spirit  offered  Himself  without  spot  to  God,  cleanse 
your  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God." — 
Heb.  ix.  14. 

It  has  been  said,  that  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement  tends  to  make  men  less  strict  in  conduct 
than  they  would  be,  apart  from  the  relief  it  brings  to 
their  fears,  and  that  in  some  periods  of  religious 
history  it  has  fostered  lawlessness.  The  peril  needs 
to  be  watched  against,  for  good  men  inadvertently 
speak  of  the  finished  work  of  Christ  in  tones  that 
seem  to  minimise  the  need  for  repentance  and 
amended  habits  of  conduct ;  whilst  bad  men  flatter 
themselves  that  by  faith  they  can  share  in  the  benefits 
of  the  Cross,  even  though  they  are  in  a  state  of  flagrant 
unregeneracy.  The  scandal  arises  through  the  infir- 
mity and  deceitfulness  of  human  nature,  and  not 
because  of  the  genius  of  the  doctrine  itself  Perhaps 
the  more  vital  a  doctrine  is,  the  greater  will  be  the 
temptation  to  misconceive  and  abuse  it.     The  dangers 

which  beset  a  sophistical  treatment  of  this  subject 

117 


ii8        THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

must  be  patent  to  all,  but  a  right  interpretation  of 
our  text  and  other  New  Testament  Scriptures  ought 
to  show  us  that  the  efficacy  of  the  Cross  is  rooted 
in  its  inward  virtues,  and  that,  whilst  readjusting  our 
relationships  with  God,  it  at  the  same  time  works 
a  profound  inward  change  which  fits  the  spirit  for 
the  Divine  service. 

The  first  view  we  take  of  the  message  of  redemption 
is  necessarily  crude,  superficial,  unheroic.  We  think 
of  the  Cross  in  terms  of  pain,  and  we  think  of  the 
benefits  it  effects  for  us  as  a  release  from  pain  we 
ourselves  have  deserved.  The  view,  though  rudi- 
mentary, is  true  as  far  as  it  goes.  For  the  time 
being,  at  least  before  we  have  been  uplifted  to  a 
holy,  unselfish  plane  of  life,  we  are  incapable  of  a 
better  view  ;  and  we  need  to  remember  that  it  is 
along  these  mean,  earthly  levels  of  thought  that  base 
and  selfish  natures  must  be  brought  into  the  fulness 
of  the  Christian  faith.  Little  is  realised  for  the 
moment  of  what  lies  beyond  these  elementary 
definitions.  The  sacrificial  death  of  Jesus  brings 
recuperative  forces  into  play  and  turns  back  disease 
and  spiritual  death.  It  protects  natures  which  are 
stamped  with  a  Divine  similitude  against  degradation 
and  impending  ruin.  But  with  the  first  experiences 
of  the  new  life  we  begin  to  find  there  is  a  goal  beyond 
this.  The  agonies  of  the  crucified  are  a  veil  behind 
which  hide  virtues  of  ineffable  grandeur  and  matchless 
intensity,  and  He  gave  Himself  for  us  on  the  cross  to 
create  out  of  the  poor  stuff  of  our  corrupted  natures 
a  ministry,  to  separate  a  priesthood,  to  consecrate  by 
the  sprinkling  of  His  sacred  blood  a  new  service  and 
sovereignty  in  the  realms  over  which  He  is  enthroned. 
The  Cross  works  not  only  by  the  magic  remissions. 


THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION         119 

of  which  it  is  the  channel,  but  by  processes  of  sym- 
pathy and  moral  assimilation.  We  need  to  grasp  its 
meanings,  as  far  as  we  may,  for  we  are  unfit  for  the 
service  to  which  we  are  designated,  whilst  our  judg- 
ments are  in  suspense  and  we  refuse  a  response  to 
its  intention. 

At  one  time  perhaps  the  tendency  was  to  find  the 
essential  potency  of  the  Atonement  in  the  pains 
endured  for  men  by  the  Lord  Jesus.  More  recently 
the  sacrifice  has  been  looked  upon  as  a  vast  store  of 
incomparable  moral  virtues,  which  achieved  the  great 
reconciliation  by  making  a  resistless  appeal  to  the 
Divine  Father's  heart.  In  the  filial  obedience  of  the 
Son  to  the  far-reaching  laws  and  counsels  of  eternal 
holiness,  some  modern  theologians  have  found  the 
root-mystery  of  redemption.  If  we  make  either  view 
exclusive  of  that  with  which  it  is  brought  into  con- 
trast, we  may  fall  into  a  mischievous  onesidedness. 
The  intense  and  all-comprehending  holiness  of  Jesus, 
apart  from  the  conditions  of  judicial  pain  under 
which  it  was  manifested,  would  have  fallen  short 
of  that  necessary  reparation  for  a  guilty  race  which 
was  the  first  step  towards  its  recovery.  In  the  New 
Testament  doctrine  of  Christ's  death  the  two  things 
are  inseparable.  Infinite  and  immaculate  righteous- 
ness nailed  to  a  cross  of  agony,  and  asserting  through 
the  bitter  ordeal  its  unabating  virtue,  was  a  new 
spectacle  in  the  presence  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth.  The  first-born  sons  of  light,  as  far  as  we 
may  argue  from  the  brief  glimpses  of  their  life  made 
known  to  us,  have  not  reached  their  sanctity  by  rough 
and  thorny  paths  of  development.  Such  types  of 
unchastened  and  impassive  holiness  stand  in  an 
inferior  order,  and  can  achieve  no  expiations.     The 


I20        THE   INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

righteousness  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  is  unexampled 
because  it  is  maintained  and  manifested  under  con- 
ditions of  profound,  unfathomable  pain,  and  especially 
of  punitive  and  vicarious  pain.  Virtues  less  than 
infinite  in  their  breadth  and  depth  and  height  could 
not  have  availed  at  this  tragic  crisis  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  spiritual  universe.  It  is  in  the  darkness  of  an 
experience,  dominated  by  the  principle  of  substitu- 
tion, that  we  measure  the  range  and  the  splendour 
of  these  moral  qualities.  A  new  universe  of  graces 
founds  itself  on  the  Cross.  In  an  act,  which  unites 
supreme  mercy  and  righteousness,  Jesus  bears  the 
sin  of  a  transgressing  world,  thus  showing  His  zeal 
to  restore  men,  at  whatever  cost  to  Himself,  into 
harmony  and  communion  with  His  Father.  This 
love,  devoting  itself  with  equal  fervour  to  the  laws 
of  truth  and  eternal  justice  and  to  the  interests  of 
a  forlorn  and  hopeless  race,  gave  to  His  death,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  Father,  illimitable  worth  and 
sanctity. 

What  are  the  ethical  properties  which  give  to  this 
death  its  singular  and  triumphant  efficacy?  No 
exhaustive  answer  is  possible,  but  instinct  impels  us 
to  explore  the  mystery,  and  the  human  mind  will 
not  consent  to  leave  the  question  in  final  obscurity. 
Those  properties  are  as  unfathomable  as  the  ele- 
mental forces  of  the  Divine  character  itself.  The  age 
needs  a  more  adequate  answer  than  is  commonly 
given,  so  that  it  may  recover  its  wavering  faith  in 
this  first  doctrine  of  grace.  "  The  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ "  is  a  watchword  of  Sacramentarian  and  Salva- 
tionist alike,  but  explanations  are  not  usually  offered 
to  us  of  the  ethical  values  which  belong  to  this  dread 
symbol.     Under  this  old-world  form,  the  Bible  tells 


THE   INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION         121 

us  that  "  life"  was  offered  to  God  upon  the  altar  ;  and 
we  cannot  get  far  beyond  this  point.  But  the  writer 
of  this  Epistle  takes  us  some  steps  in  advance, 
and  reminds  us  of  the  lofty  moral  attributes  in 
which  the  life,  presented  as  a  final  sacrifice  for  us, 
was  so  incomparably  rich.  Hence  the  saving  and 
sanctifying  efficacy  of  this  sacrificial  blood.  Some 
preachers  say  that  a  theory  upon  this  solemn 
subject  is  impossible,  and  that  if  we  trust  in  the 
death  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  without  trying  to  form  any 
specific  idea  of  what  it  achieved  for  us  in  the  sight 
of  God,  we  shall  find  deliverance  and  enter  into  the 
benefits  of  the  Cross  and  Passion.  But  this  is  to  treat 
the  sacrifice  and  its  virtues  as  though  the  Cross  were 
the  mere  instrument  through  which  a  Divine  magician 
wrought  upon  our  destinies  and  required  no  intelli- 
gent and  rational  response  from  us.  There  may  be 
circumstances  under  which  this  is  the  best  thing  a 
man  can  do,  and  when  our  apprehension  has  stretched 
itself  to  the  utmost  possible  limits,  there  will  still  be 
mystic  efficacy  in  the  Cross  which  exceeds  the  widest 
scope  of  our  understanding.  But  we  need  a  doctrine 
of  the  Cross,  and  we  must  not  turn  back  from  a  line 
of  thought  to  which  the  New  Testament  points  the 
way.  The  sovereign  virtue  in  this  death  was  its  holy, 
unblemished,  self-devoting  pity,  its  entire  dedication 
to  the  Father's  sacred  will,  its  compensating  honour 
for  the  severest  demand  of  a  broken  law. 

We  are  told  that  it  was  through  the  Divine  dignity 
of  the  Sufferer  that  the  Atonement  was  made.  The 
life,  offered  as  an  act  of  homage  to  the  Eternal 
Holiness,  was  incomputably  more  precious  than  the 
least  blemished  life  of  a  dependent  creature.  This  is 
true,  but  we  must  not  interpret  by  mediaeval  notions 


122        THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

of  spiritual  rank  the  guilt-removing  efficacy  arising 
from  the  death  of  One  who  shared  the  glory  of  the 
Eternal  Godhead.  Not  so  many  centuries  back, 
men  thought  of  God  under  the  analogies  of  a  feudal 
aristocracy,  and  honoured  Him  because  He  wore  the 
crown  of  a  far-ranging  and  irresistible  sovereignty, 
rather  than  because  of  what  He  was  in  essential 
character.  The  death  of  Jesus,  summed  up  in  the 
perpetual  symbol  of  His  blood,  availed  to  put  away 
sin,  not  because  He  belonged  to  a  Divine  caste.  It 
is  true  He  was  enthroned  above  all  ranks  and  orders 
of  celestial  beings,  enriched  with  a  wisdom  and  clothed 
with  a  majesty  they  could  not  rival,  and  these  things 
were  measures  of  His  amazing  condescension  when 
He  undertook  our  cause  on  the  cross.  But  His 
Divine  sacrifice  became  illimitably  meritorious 
through  the  zeal  and  active  exercise  of  His  splendid 
moral  attributes.  It  was  thus  that  His  Divine  estate 
declared  itseff,  for  His  essential  dignity  was  attested 
by  His  high  spiritual  perfection.  He  was  not  only 
co-equal  in  power  and  majesty,  of  one  substance  with 
the  Father,  but  He  shared  the  deepest  secret  of 
the  Divine  holiness  ;  and  it  was  this  which  invested 
His  death  with  superhuman  efficacy  as  a  propitia- 
tion for  the  sin  of  the  world.  The  virtues  of  His 
offering  were  demonstrated  not  by  the  startling 
omens  which  attended  His  death,  but  by  the  spirit 
in  which  He  died.  We  can  have  no  more  convincing 
sign.  It  was  the  only  and  well-beloved  Son  of  God 
who  died,  and  His  sacrifice  is  all-victorious  in  its  preva- 
lence, because  it  gathers  up  into  a  final  and  complete 
redemptive  act  all  the  elements  of  spiritual  perfection. 
The  Father  found  here  under  the  tragic  conditions  of 
the  Passion  an  eager  and  reciprocal  righteousness. 


THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION         123 

The  writer  of  the  Epistle  gives  three  notes  which 
tend  to  determine  the  surpassing  greatness  and 
sufficiency  of  this   last  sublime   sacrifice. 

He  suggests  that  Jesus  brought  to  this  offering 
the  characteristic  forces  of  a  Divine  personality, 
"  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit."  So  recent 
commentators,  including  Bishop  Westcott,  explain 
this  phrase.  That  personality  was  the  home,  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting,  of  sacred  virtues  and 
affections,  to  which  human  life  in  its  best  develop- 
ments is  a  stranger.  And  in  the  flesh,  taken  up  into 
the  Divine  Sonship  and  transfixed  to  the  cross,  these 
virtues  and  affections  shone  with  strange  spiritual 
splendour.  Forces  of  eternal  excellence  pulsated  in 
this  sacrificial  life,  not  the  kind  of  perfection  which  is 
reached  through  the  straining  flight  of  a  moment,  the 
perfection  which  blooms  into  transcendent  perfection 
for  a  brief  space  of  summer  only,  but  that  which 
was  Divine,  changeless,  unbegotten,  immortal,  or  the 
efficacy  of  redemption  might  have  been  limited  in 
quality,  and  bounded  in  time.  The  essence  of  the 
Divine  attributes,  in  their  sacred  integrity,  flowered 
out  into  an  inconceivably  meritorious  act,  and  made 
it  a  sweet  incense  before  God  and  the  coming 
generations  of  men.  The  genius  of  this  amazing 
personality  was  as  mighty  and  invincible  as  in 
creating  the  worlds,  of  which  processes  He  had  been 
the  Father's  chosen  instrument. 

By  spelling  the  word  "  Spirit "  with  a  capital  letter, 
the  Revised  Version,  following  the  Authorised,  shows 
perhaps  that  the  recent  translators  still  hold  by  the 
old  view,  which  makes  this  term  refer  to  the  place  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Incarnate  life  of  Jesus.  The 
two  views  may  be  made  to  merge  into  each  other 


124        THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

without   violence,    for    the    Incarnate   life    from    its 
earliest  dawn  had  been  suffused  with  the  indwelling 
presence   of   Him    who   had    been    given    to    Jesus 
without   measure.      This  heart,    pierced    at    last    by 
a  soldier's  spear,  was  the    first   heart  in   which   the 
Spirit   had    dwelt   without   a    pang.     From    infancy 
upwards    all    the    sweet,    spotless   affection    of    this 
unfolding  life  has  responded   swiftly  to  His  inward 
breathings.    The  indwelling  Searcher  of  secrets  knew 
how  complete,  unwavering,  whole-hearted  had  been 
the  obedience  to  the  Father's  counsels.    The  enlarging 
insight  into  human  sin,  which  came  with  the  advanc- 
ing maturity  of  Jesus,  fed  the  fountains  of  His  pity 
and  strengthened    Him  to  be  the  willing  substitute 
of  the   race.     The  Spirit  had  kept  Him  in  conscious 
communion  with  the  Father,  and  helped  that  partici- 
pation in  the  Divine  nature,  through  the  forthputting 
of  whose  virtues  He  redeemed  men.     The  Spirit  was 
a  witness  of  the  fitness  and  adequacy  of  the  sacrifice 
He  was   in  due  time  to  offer.     In  the  thirty  years  of 
His  humiliation  the  Spirit  illuminated  His  mind  with 
the  Father's  secret  counsels,  assuring  Him  that  His 
offering    of    Himself,    though    free,    was    not    pre- 
sumptuous.     The    Spirit   who    led     Him    into    the 
wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil,  led  Him  also 
to  the  cross,  knowing  that  He  would  be  as  blameless 
in  the  second  and  the  more  awful  ordeal  as  in  the 
first.      "  Who     through    the    eternal    Spirit    offered 
Himself." 

The  love  which  actuated  this  sacrifice  was  spon- 
taneous and  uncompelled,  according  to  its  own 
Divine  order.  "  Offered  Himself"  The  noblest 
sacrifices  of  the  law  were  enforced  upon  the  wor- 
shipper by  a  demand  he  could  not  oppose,  and  the 


THE   INWARDNESS   OF   REDEMPTION         125 

victim  presented  was  incapable  of  moral  choice  and 
had  no  sense  of  the  rite  to  which  its  poor  life  was 
subservient.  Such  offerings  could  have  but  a  tem- 
porary, didactic  value  in  a  system  of  symbols.  It  is 
only  under  conditions  of  complete  liberty  that  the 
principle  of  a  deep,  spiritual  self-devotion  can  manifest 
itself.  The  pathetic  submission  of  a  child  to  sacrifice 
at  the  will  of  a  father,  as  illustrated  in  the  histories  of 
Abraham  and  Jephtha,  was  not  free  in  the  modern 
sense  of  the  term,  because  in  primitive  societies  the 
child  was  trained  to  bow  implicitly  to  the  terrible 
dominion  of  the  parent  over  each  member  of  the 
family.  That  power  of  self-determination,  whence  all 
actions  derive  whatever  value  they  possess  in  the  cur- 
rency of  the  moral  world,  is  clearly  a  greater  thing  in 
a  Divine  than  in  a  human  being,  and  covers  a  wider 
area  of  issues.  The  freedom  of  a  finite  creature  is 
confined  within  narrow  bounds,  and  cannot  exceed 
the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  scope  of  his  personal 
attributes.  In  the  Son  of  God,  this  self-directing 
faculty  operated  through  domains,  measured  upon  the 
superhuman  scale.  The  faculty  was  of  sovereign 
dimensions,  and  its  exercise  created  transcendent 
spiritual  values.  The  issues  with  which  this  act  of 
sacrifice  was  charged  were  spontaneous  in  their 
uprisings,  and  proportionately  mighty  as  moulding 
factors  in  God's  after-discipline  and  judgment  of  the 
human  race.  Obedience  to  the  redemptive  law  of 
the  Cross  was  not  the  unconsenting,  automatic 
subservience  sometimes  produced  by  suggestion 
from  without,  or  enforced  upon  an  inferior  in- 
telligence by  hard,  unrelenting  pressures.  "  Who  .  .  . 
offered  Himself"  A  consummate  precept  of  vicarious 
love  kept  in  suspense  the  instinct  of  self-preservation, 


126        THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

implanted  in  every  kingdom  of  sentient  being.  The 
life  thus  offered  was  in  no  sense  meagre  or  unsatis- 
fying, but  broad,  rich,  plenteous,  blessed,  in  proportion 
to  its  surpassing  attributes.  It  was  more  to  Jesus 
than  the  most  gladsome  life  on  earth  to  the  man  who 
exults  in  his  favoured  fortune.  He  presented 
Himself,  not  for  a  world  applauding  His  un- 
selfishness, an  easy  task  perliaps  to  some  men 
under  the  spell  of  intoxicating  enthusiasms,  but 
for  a  world  gathered  in  anger  and  execration  at 
His  bleeding  feet.  This  was  the  first  and  last 
sacrifice  possessing  such  qualities.  A  less  spon- 
taneous surrender  could  not  have  made  satisfaction 
for  the  world's  transgression. 

This  offering  up  of  Himself  was  "  without  blemish," 
and  is  thus  contrasted  with  the  offerings  of  the 
Temple,  which  needed  to  satisfy  only  a  prescribed 
standard  of  physical  development.  The  description 
implies  perfect  reason,  complete  self-choice,  intense 
inward  holiness,  characteristics  necessarily  wanting  in 
meaner  victims.  In  the  Incarnate  life,  which  was 
crowned  in  an  atoning  death.  Divine  virtues  were 
set  forth  under  new  and  difficult  conditions.  It 
might  have  been  thought  beforehand  that  such 
high  spiritual  graces  were  too  rare  and  exquisite 
for  incorporation  into  flesh  and  blood,  and  that  no 
complete  embodiment  of  Divine  qualities  under 
coarse  and  selfish  surroundings  was  possible.  Now 
and  again  perhaps  hardy  social  and  domestic 
virtues,  long  acclimatised  amongst  the  higher  races 
of  mankind,  may  produce  themselves  without  canker 
and  blemish,  just  as  simple  field-flowers  may  grow  to 
perfect  form  and  texture  upon  poor  soils  and  in 
grimy  atmospheres.     But  that  the  peculiar  sanctities 


THE   INWARDNESS  OF   REDEMPTION         127 

which  belong  to  the  circle  of  a  Divine  life  should 
reproduce  themselves  under  forbidding  circum- 
stances, in  a  lot  of  common  toil,  obloquy,  and 
shame,  and  should  shine  forth  in  unmarred  loveli- 
ness in  death,  might  seem  an  impossible  problem. 
With  this  inner  group  of  Divine  qualities,  which 
could  only  be  set  forth  in  the  Cross,  the  Apostles 
themselves  had  at  first  little  sympathy,  for  it  was 
beyond  the  range  of  their  experiences.  And  yet  the 
flesh,  to  which  this  spirit  of  infinite  holiness  joined 
itself,  and  which  was  at  last  tortured  on  a  cross, 
brought  no  taint  to  the  nature  with  which  it  had  been 
united.  The  sacrifice  avails  because  it  is  informed 
with  boundless  virtues,  and  when  brought  into  the 
eternal  light  is  spotless.  The  Spirit  who  searches 
the  deep  things  of  both  God  and  man  does  not 
decline  to  affix  His  seal  to  this  incomparable 
offering,  guiding  and  cheering  the  spirit  of  Him 
who  presents  it.  The  outshed  blood  was  replete 
with  marvellous  moral  values.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
fact  that  the  sanctity  of  Jesus  seemed  to  belong 
to  a  higher  order  than  the  human  which  led  the 
Baptist  to  see  in  Him  "the  Lamb  of  God,  who 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  Peter  empha- 
sises the  same  view  from  another  standpoint.  Jesus 
was  offered  as  a  lam.b  without  spot  and  blemish, 
to  redeem  those  who  could  not  be  saved  by  the 
costliest  gifts  of  earth,  and  the  proof  of  His  Divine- 
ness  was  His  meek  and  unmurmuring  submission  to 
a  cruel  death  of  apparent  injustice,  against  which  all 
the  common  instincts  of  natural  righteousness  rise  in 
protest.  Jesus  set  forth  the  unspotted  perfection  of  a 
holy  God,  a  far  higher  group  of  qualities  than  the 
perfection    of  a   holy   man,  as    He   hung   upon    the 


128        THE   INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

cross,  and  presented  Himself  to  the  Father  in  our 
stead. 

But  the  Atonement  is  not  only  ethical  in  its 
foundation  qualities  :  it  contemplates  distinctly 
ethical  ends.  According  to  the  writer  of  this 
Epistle,  it  has  power  to  reinstate  men  in  God's 
service,  by  cleansing  "  the  conscience "  from  the 
defilements  which  profane  it.  No  sane  king  would 
fill  his  courts  with  the  ministrations  of  those  who  are 
leprous,  unsightly  through  disease,  infection-centres 
unfit  for  intelligent  response  to  his  demands,  under  a 
death-sentence.  Far  less  can  a  holy  God  suffer 
a  ministry  disfigured  by  spiritual  disease  and 
deformity,  clad  in  grave-clothes,  and  with  the 
overlordship  of  the  sepulchre  branded  upon  it, 
to  appear  in  His  presence.  A  dead  king  may 
perhaps  be  served  by  the  ghosts  of  dead  slaves 
who  are  slaughtered  to  honour  his  burial.  But  an 
immortal  God  must  have  living  servants.  He 
requires  life,  health,  vital  sanctity  in  those  who  are 
His  appointed  instruments.  This  truth  was  asserted 
in  the  ritual  of  the  Temple.  The  worshipper  needed 
to  be  washed  from  the  defilement  produced  by 
contact  with  corruption,  in  either  its  open  or 
insidious  forms.  The  priest  must  not  appear  in  the 
sanctuary  with  the  conventional  marks  of  mourning 
upon  his  person.  A  living  God  to  whom  death  is 
impossible  dwells  within  the  temple,  and  his  shrine 
must  be  filled  with  the  spirit  of  life.  Perhaps  the 
hiding  of  God's  face,  when  the  Son  endured  His 
vicarious  death,  may  have  asserted  this  principle 
in   its  dreadful  finality. 

The  creation  of  a  sanctified  and  responsive  priest- 
hood,  coextensive  with  the   race   and   breathing   in 


THE   INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION  129 

fellowship  with  Him  who  hath  life  in  Himself,  must 
begin  at  the  true  nucleus  of  the  moral  personality, 
and  have  for  its  first  step  the  washing  of  the 
conscience  from  "  the  dead  works  "  which  burden  it. 
The  "  dead  works,"  from  which  the  conscience  needs 
to  be  freed,  are  works  done  in  a  state  of  separation 
from  the  living  God,  works  which  are  vitiated  by  an 
impious  wilfulness,  and  carry  within  themselves  a 
sentence  of  doom.  In  some  men  the  conscience  has 
shrunk  to  a  social  faculty,  and  frets  only  at  the 
memory  of  a  vice  or  a  crime.  It  is  no  longer 
religious.  But  with  the  new  awakening  to  spiritual 
sensitiveness,  which  comes  sooner  or  later  to  all 
men,  tempers  and  acts,  showing  alienation  from 
God,  cause  a  pain  quite  as  keen  as  the  remorse  felt 
by  the  man  who  has  been  hurried  into  flagrant 
delinquency.  A  conscience  poisoned  with  guilty 
memories  disqualifies  for  service  of  the  living  God, 
and  effectually  hinders  the  joy  which  should  attend 
sincere  obedience. 

This  vicarious  sacrifice,  replete  with  eternal  virtues, 
takes  away  the  fear  begotten  by  the  memories  of  the 
past.  It  does  for  men  what  Paul's  gracious  letter  to 
Philemon  did  for  the  runaway  slave  in  Rome,  and 
more.  It  frees  from  dread  of  punishment  and 
restores  the  delinquent  to  the  circle  of  duty  in 
which  he  was  once  faithless,  restores  him,  not  as  a 
bondsman  haunted  with  a  prospect  of  torture,  but  as 
a  son  ;  and  the  damage  of  the  temporary  defection 
is  made  good  by  the  covenant  pledge  of  a  persuasive 
intercessor.  The  condemnation  of  the  sinner  is 
removed  so  that  a  new  vantage-ground  of  moral 
activity  may  be  reached.  Salvation  finds  its  goal  in 
a  dynamic,  which  is  the  key  to   a   better  and  loftier 

10 


I30        THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

order.  We  are  ransomed,  not  only  that  we  may 
escape  the  whips  and  fetters  of  captivity,  but  that  we 
may  be  a  people  for  the  Lord's  possession.  In  the 
view  of  those  who  have  learned  the  secret  of  the 
Gospel  this  is  no  abatement  from  the  blessings  of 
redemption,  for  true  believers  find  their  best  satis- 
factions in  the  service  of  Jesus  Christ  amongst  men. 
By  washing  the  conscience  from  its  guilt  and  inward 
pollution,  the  Cross  creates  a  new  ministry  within 
God's  boundless  household  ;  and  we  have  not  read  its 
purpose  aright  if  we  are  sluggish  and  worldly-minded 
seeking  for  ourselves  nothing  more  than  release  from 
legal  pains.  The  atoning  sacrifice  cleanses  for  God's 
uses,  because  the  living  God  cannot  be  served  by 
works  done  in  a  state  of  separation  from  His  presence. 
The  one  problem  into  which  every  other  problem 
of  history  runs  back  is  the  problem  of  con- 
science. Men  are  restless,  and  in  many  cases 
degenerate  into  the  unemployable,  because  of  their 
shiftlessness,  and  they  are  shiftless  because  they  are 
ever  seeking  new  hiding-places  from  self-reproach 
and  condemnation.  Fugitives  from  pursuing  judg- 
ments, and  not  infrequently  from  painful  self- 
judgments,  hurry  through  the  obscure  labyrinths  of 
the  crowded  city  and  are  pilgrims  and  strangers,  not 
quite  perhaps  in  the  patriarchal  sense.  Men  are 
gamesters,  sensualists,  drunkards,  because  they  dread 
being  alone  with  themselves.  Whilst  religious  melan- 
cholia sometimes  victimises  the  most  estimable 
people,  minds  are  not  infrequently  unhinged  because 
of  secret  inward  remorse.  A  nervous  specialist  of 
repute  has  declared  that  many  of  the  distressing 
suicides  which  take  place  around  us  find  their 
explanation  in  the  troubled  conscience.     The  social 


THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION         131 

reformer  is  faced  by  two  difficulties :  he  wants  to 
bring  relief  to  those  whose  consciences  are  in 
torment,  and  he  wants  to  do  it  without  benumbing 
the  conscience  of  the  multitude,  and  the  two  things 
are  incompatible.  How  can  the  conscience  be  both 
healed  and  stimulated  ?  The  question  is  answered  in 
Christ's  gospel  of  reconciliation.  It  is  sometimes 
said  that  the  death  of  Jesus  manifests  the  love  of 
God  and  appeals  to  the  affections,  which  is  perfectly 
true.  But  the  Gospel  appeals  to  the  affections  by 
first  of  all  appealing  to  the  conscience,  a  faculty 
whose  work  it  is  to  deal  primarily  with  the  simple 
issues  of  right  and  wrong.  The  Atonement  secures 
our  forgiveness,  in  harmony  with  an  inviolably 
sacred  and  immutable  law.  The  deepest  love  of 
the  soul  is  won  by  cleansing  the  conscience.  Some 
difficulties  in  life,  which  at  first  appal,  solve 
themselves,  and  other  difficulties  can  be  fought 
down  by  a  valiant  and  strong-minded  man,  but  this 
problem  is  beyond  the  range  of  our  utmost  skill. 
To  quell  the  inward  pain  which  racks  the  moral 
senses  is  the  best  service  a  benefactor  can  render, 
and  rarely  fails  to  awaken  gratitude.  There  is  no 
natural  recuperation  for  a  soul  burdened  with  the 
sense  of  wrong-doing,  stung  as  by  an  unsleeping 
scorpion  nested  in  the  heart,  darkened  with  the 
shadow  of  death.  None  but  God  can  appease  the 
pain,  the  God  who  deals  with  it  by  the  Cross.  We 
may  divert  the  imagination  and  lull  for  a  moment 
the  moral  torment  which  is  preying  within,  but 
in  the  reflective  stages  of  life,  when  pensive  moods 
take  possession  of  us,  the  past  transgression  returns, 
a  persistent  and  unwelcome  guest.  He  who  can 
hush   for  us   the  accusing   voice,  speaking   pitilessly 


132         THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 


in  the  inner  silences  of  the  soul,  deserves  a  thousand- 
fold greater  love  than  other  acts  of  friendship  can 
earn.  This  gratitude  becomes  the  mainspring  of 
acceptable  service. 

If  we  think  of  the  service  which  God  seeks  from 
us,  we  shall  see  how  impossible  it  is  to  meet  His 
claim,  till  the  Cross  has  wrought  its  saving  changes 
within  us.  The  work  we  do  at  His  bidding  must 
be  a  whole-hearted  work  of  love,  a  work  of  faith, 
a  work  informed  with  clear  moral  discriminations. 
These  qualities  take  their  rise  in  the  cleansing  of 
the  conscience. 

The  child  troubled  by  the  memory  of  an  evil  act 
he  has  not  the  courage  to  confess,  is  preoccupied 
with  many  fears,  and  cannot  give  undivided  attention 
to  his  daily  tasks.  He  becomes  shy,  shrinking, 
reserved,  in  the  expression  of  his  affection.  The 
atmosphere  of  the  home  seems  hostile,  and  he  is 
tempted  to  run  away  from  it,  no  matter  into  what 
miseries.  The  workman  with  a  guilty  secret  is 
slack,  slipshod,  lacking  in  concentration,  and  at 
length  becomes  unfit.  The  man  with  a  black  past, 
who  goes  from  mining  camp  to  mining  camp,  or 
from  sheep-farm  to  sheep-farm  in  the  colonies,  is 
in  constant  fear  of  detection,  and  vanishes  as  soon 
as  a  face  he  has  known  in  the  past  appears  upon  the 
scene.  He  looks  upon  society  as  his  enemy,  and  has 
no  faith  in  it.  The  professional  man  who  has  been 
led  into  a  crime  he  hopes  to  conceal,  either  loses  all 
heart  in  his  work,  or  plunges  himself  into  a  mad 
whirl,  which  leaves  no  time  for  reflection. 

Unless  the  conscience  is  washed  from  the  poisoned 
memories  which  choke  and  impede  it,  devotion  to 
God's  will  cannot  be   whgle-hearted.     The  faith  in 


THE   INWARDNESS   OF    REDEiMPTION         133 


God,  which  secures  the  only  success  which  is  worth 
havinor,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  man  who  is  driven 
by  his  guilty  fears  away  from  God.  The  exploits  of 
believing  men,  immortalised  in  the  eleventh  chapter 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  cannot  be  repeated  by 
one  within  whose  moral  sense  there  is  an  open  sore, 
for  he  cannot  confide  in  a  holy  and  righteous  God. 
Till  the  conscience  is  rectified,  according  to  the  Divine 
method,  no  man's  service  can  be  informed  by  clear 
moral  discriminations.  To  ignore  the  guilt  of  the 
past  can  only  end  in  one  of  two  ways,  in  either 
stupefying  the  moral  sensibilities  and  producing  a 
condition  akin  to  drug-drunkenness  ;  or  leaving  the 
neglected  conscience  free  to  revenge  itself  upon  us, 
in  its  own  time,  and  producing  a  condition  akin 
to  the  delirious  fever,  which  distorts  and  deranges 
perception.  Unless  sin  is  righteously  forgiven,  the 
conscience  lapses  into  the  category  of  a  neglected 
faculty  and  is  of  no  more  use  than  a  degraded  officer 
in  a  campaign.  Jesus  Christ  died,  not  only  to  save 
us  from  hell,  but  to  make  and  keep  us  conscientious, 
conscientious  with  the  fidelity  of  the  Japanese  artist 
who  carves  and  lacquers  the  hidden  parts  of  his  work 
in  the  temple  with  the  same  fastidiousness  as  the 
parts  which  are  open  to  public  view.  Redemption  is 
essentially  inward.  The  errors  in  the  clock  are  not 
repaired  by  gilding  the  hands  and  painting  the 
letters  on  the  dial,  but  by  cleaning  pivots  and  wheels 
and  adjusting  the  fine  and  delicate  mechanisms  which 
are  behind  the  dial.  Salvation  begins  with  the  work 
of  the  Cross  in  the  conscience.  There  is  a  right  and 
a  wrong  in  everything,  and  our  work  in  the  after 
years  cannot  show  fine  and  veracious  discriminations, 
till  the  conscience  is  purified  from  guilt  and  assured 


134         I'HE   INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

by  the  power  of  Him  who  died  for  us,  of  release  from 
a  condemnation  once  justly  incurred. 

And  thus  we  find  that  the  earlier  and  the  later 
view  of  the  ends  to  be  achieved  by  the  Cross 
harmonise  with  each  other.  To  be  separated  from 
God  by  evil  tempers  of  mind  and  the  actions  which 
express  them  is  wrath,  remorse,  the  beginning  of 
hell  ;  whilst  to  be  reunited  with  Him  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  consecrated  work  is  health,  salvation,  and 
enduring  blessedness.  Antinomianism  arises  when- 
ever men  get  into  the  habit  of  thinking  that  sin  and 
pain,  unselfish  service  and  sacred  felicity,  are  separable 
from  each  other.  No  gladness  and  inward  satisfac- 
tion is  possible  apart  from  the  complete  and  sustained 
activity  of  our  ransomed  powers  in  the  ways  of  a 
Divine  vocation.  The  bodily  organ  whose  function 
stagnates  is  always  a  centre  of  disease,  secreting 
poisons,  breeding  inward  distress,  and  making  for 
the  degeneration  that  withers  and  finally  destroys. 
And  this  is  true  in  the  spiritual  life.  Unless  the 
highest  faculties  of  the  soul  are  exercised  and 
employed  men  consume  away  in  vanity,  but  when 
Christian  believers  enter  with  cleansed  consciences 
upon  the  duties  assigned  by  the  great  Taskmaster  the 
tides  of  a  pure  bliss  course  through  all  the  veins. 
The  path  into  the  activities  of  the  kingdom  is  the 
path  into  beatitude,  and  it  is  into  this  path  we  are 
directed  by  the  Cross.  We  are  so  constituted  that  it 
is  impossible  for  us  to  find  a  stable  Paradise  in 
sweet  languor  and  lassitude.  The  young  lady,  who 
for  two  years  had  been  rushing  in  feverish  enthusi- 
asm through  all  the  show  places  of  Europe  and  Asia, 
and  could  not  bear  to  think  of  heaven,  but  wished 
to  be  wrapped  up  in  lavender  sprigs  and  put  on  a 


THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 


0:5 


shelf  for  a  thousand  years,  was  expressint^  the  mood 
of  a  fatii^ued  moment  and  not  a  sober  philosophy 
of  life.  Before  many  weeks  had  passed  a  keen, 
strenuous  nature  would  find  the  shelf,  even  with 
its  mitigations  of  lavender,  a  bed  of  torture.  Sal- 
vation may  be  into  a  state,  as  we  first  conceive  it, 
but  the  state  must  provide  for  the  keen,  tense 
activity  of  every  power  with  which  we  have  been 
endowed.  Only  thus  are  we  saved  from  soul-sickness 
and  condemnation,  and  in  this  new  experience  of 
the  delight  of  consecrated  service,  the  two  views  of 
the  Atonement  meet. 

How  can  this  sacrifice  cleanse  the  abysmal  recesses 
of  the  nature  and  pour  balm  into  its  deep-seated 
inward  pain  ?  When  with  contrite  hearts  we  respond 
to  its  persuasions  it  satisfies  the  Divine  claim  against 
us  because  it  is  rich  in  the  virtues,  which  have  a 
counterpart  in  the  Godhead  itself;  and  it  satisfies 
the  conscience  of  the  man  who  is  united  to  Christ 
because  it  satisfies  the  God  who  reflects  His  judg- 
ments into  the  conscience,  and  pervades  it  with  His 
holy  light.  The  truth  that  we  are  members  one  of 
another,  and  that  God  Himself  has  come  into  the 
partnership,  receives  its  most  impressive  affirmation 
in  the  Cross.  Jesus  joins  Himself  not  only  with  our 
past  for  its  expiation  but  with  our  future  for  its 
guidance  and  control ;  and  the  one  process  without 
the  other  would  be  impossible.  The  Atonement 
could  not  be  made  by  a  Being,  however  mighty,  who 
stood  outside  our  life.  It  was  for  His  own  possession 
that  He  ransomed  us  by  the  Cross,  and  if  His  Cross 
did  not  release  us  from  the  guilty,  woebegone  con- 
ditions of  the  past,  Paul's  enforcement  of  the  Lord's 
title  is  based  upon  a  fiction. 


136        THE   INWARDNESS   OF   REDEMPTION 

But  human  nature  is  always  bent  upon  expiating 
its  own  transgressions,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross 
sometimes  seems  a  shock  to  the  moral  sense  itself. 
If  we  scrutinise  our  hearts  with  unsparing  severity  we 
may  perhaps  discover  that  it  is  pride  speaking  under 
a  mask  of  conscience  which  thus  protests.  Sin  is  a 
fact  which  must  be  dealt  with,  and  cannot  be  dealt 
with  as  our  inbred  vanity  dictates.  We  may  think 
it  a  mark  of  robust,  self-respecting  independence  to 
repudiate  the  doctrine  that  we  are  saved  by  the  pain 
of  an  innocent  substitute,  but  it  is  vainglory  in  an 
impotent  and  departed  virtue,  and  giving  rein  to 
such  tempers  of  vainglory  only  makes  things  worse. 
The  evil  of  the  past  will  repeat  itself  in  spite  of  our 
struggles,  if  the  Cross  cannot  indeed  cleanse  and 
console  the  conscience. 

"  But  this  attitude  of  faith  in  a  vicarious  sufferer  is 
ignoble.  What  becomes,  moreover,  of  the  wrong 
done  to  others?"  We  must  repair  it  so  far  as  this  is 
possible,  for  to  do  so  is  a  part  of  the  repentance 
required  from  us  ;  and  if  those  who  have  felt  the 
sting  of  our  misdoing  have  passed  beyond  our  range, 
the  Cross  which  saves  us  will  bring  to  them  in- 
demnities quite  beyond  our  power  to  offer.  The 
shrine  in  which  the  Divine  Intercessor  abides  is  a 
clearing-house  of  ethical  judgments,  and  out  of  His 
own  unsearchable  riches.  He  is  ever  discharging  debts 
we  cannot  meet  and  repairing  wrongs  which  are 
beyond  our  skill  to  heal.  No  human  benefactor 
could  do  this,  but  we  must  not  measure  the  efficacy 
of  the  Redeemer's  sacrifice  by  our  standards.  It  was 
replete  with  the  virtues  of  the  eternal  Godhead.  An 
atonement  of  sheer  pain  could  not  appease  either 
God  or  the  clamant  conscience  of  a  race  overwhelmed 


THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION  137 


with  the  sense  of  guilt,  but  there  were  exhaustless 
virtues  in  the  offering  up  of  His  own  being"  Jesus 
made  to  God,  and  those  virtues  are  conveyed  by 
unseen  channels  to  us  and  prove  the  seed  of  a 
regenerate  life. 

We  become  Christ's  and  enter  into  the  possession 
of  His  sacrificial  gifts  by  nothing  less  than  a  process 
of  inward  purification.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  puts  special  stress  upon  the  death  of 
Jesus,  not  only  as  the  channel  through  which  the 
Divine  forgiveness  is  able  to  reach  men,  but  as  the 
method  by  which  the  grace  that  sanctifies  operates 
upon  human  souls.  A  force  less  potent  than  the 
appeal  of  the  redeeming  Cross  cannot  win  our 
mean,  frost-bound,  self-centred  natures  to  holy 
fervour.  He  gave  His  life,  and  this  the  richest  in  all 
worlds,  not  to  deliver  from  the  wrath  which  bruises 
the  sensibilities  and  to  make  us  into  decent  formalists 
and  exemplary  church-goers,  but  to  set  the  soul 
ablaze  with  devotion  to  the  living  righteousness  ;  and 
the  Cross  was  the  most  moving  demonstration  of 
righteousness  and  judgment  the  world  has  ever 
witnessed.  We  dishonour  the  Cross  by  our  little, 
tepid  conventions  and  self-seeking  pieties.  The  right 
to  live  for  ourselves  was  destroyed  when  Jesus  died. 
We  were  not  ransomed  from  an  evil  bondage  so  that 
we  should  walk  according  to  our  own  desire, — foolish, 
worldly,  wilful,  pleasure-loving.  The  Atonement  is 
entirely  misapprehended  if  it  seem  to  make  its  final 
address  to  our  religious  self-interest.  We  cannot 
accept  forgiveness,  sealed  as  is  the  gift  with  sacred 
Covenant  blood,  and  repudiate  the  larger  ethic  which 
has  been  made  binding  upon  us.  This  new  temple, 
in  which  the  God  of  all  the    families    of  the   earth 


138         THE    INWARDNESS   OF    REDEMPTION 

is  served  in  manifold  ways,  is  very  large,  and  its 
ministries  include  men  of  every  speech,  and  kindred, 
and  aptitude;  but  there  can  be  no  far-reaching  service 
of  humanity  apart  from  the  service  of  the  living  God, 
and  this  high  ministry  is  impossible  for  men,  apart 
from  the  cleansing  of  the  conscience  through  the 
Cross. 


VIII 

THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

"  And  I  lay  down  M}^  life  for  the  sheep.  ...  I  have  power 
to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again.  This 
commandment  received  I  from  My  father." — John  x.  15,  18. 

In  these  qualifying  statements  which  follow  the 
allegory  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  we  see  how  limitations 
inhere  in  all  analogies  drawn  from  pictures  of  the 
common  world.  Whilst  there  are  points  of  likeness 
between  Jesus  and  the  honest  shepherds  of  a  pastoral 
community,  there  are  points  of  contrast  also,  even 
when  the  shepherd  reaches  unaccustomed  levels  of 
heroism  and  fidelity.  If  now  and  again  he  gives  up 
his  life  for  the  flock,  the  sacrifice  is  not  self-chosen  in 
the  full  and  unqualified  sense  of  the  term.  Indeed, 
all  natural,  as  contrasted  with  moral  courage,  is  blind, 
for  through  dulnessof  the  imaginative  faculty,  danger 
is  not  vividly  realised.  When  the  shepherd  sees  the 
peril  which  arises  and  nerves  himself  to  face  it,  he 
counts  upon  chances  in  his  own  favour,  ignoring, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  chances  against  him  in  the 
struggle.  Should  he  have  to  venture  his  life  in  face 
of  great  odds,  he  yields  himself  to  die,  only  after  a 

139 


I40  THE   FREE   SACRIFICE 

frantic  struggle.  He  fights  against  the  overwhelming 
drift  of  his  destiny,  ev^en  when  the  fight  is  one  of 
despair  and  the  hope  he  leads  is  forlorn. 

Far  otherwise  is  it  with  Him  who  is  the  central 
subject  of  this  allegory.  The  danger  He  confronts 
for  the  deliverance  of  His  flock  is  not  made  up  of 
vague,  shapeless  elements,  that  can  only  be  fully 
appreciated  after  the  event.  The  whole  scene  rises 
before  Him  in  strong,  vivid  colours  and  cruel  sharp- 
ness of  outline  ;  and  yet  He  enters  into  it.  He  is  not 
a  pressed  combatant  against  a  destiny  of  pain  which 
He  knows  to  be  inevitable.  He  controls,  and  indeed 
immediately  fashions,  His  own  destiny.  It  is  not 
under  conditions  that  have  been  irresistibly  imposed 
upon  Him  from  without,  that  He  gives  up  His  life  to 
redeem  the  sheep  of  His  flock.  The  conditions  of  His 
loving,  vicarious  sacrifice  have  been  accepted  and 
established  by  an  act  of  His  own  free  will.  "  I  lay 
down  My  life  that  I  may  take  it  again." 

This  voluntary  factor  in  the  self-surrender  of  Jesus 
Christ  should  protect  the  doctrine  of  Atonement 
against  some  of  the  objections  which  have  been 
alleged  against  it.  An  atonement  through  the  act  of 
another,  if  it  were  constrained  by  either  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  broken  law  or  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion,  would  be  quite  indefensible.  Let  it  be 
unimpeachably  free,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it 
clashes  in  any  way  with  our  best  moral  intuitions. 

Two  limits  only  can  be  put  to  the  right  of  self- 
sacrifice.  The  first  is  the  claim  that  the  family,  or 
the  community,  to  which  a  man  belongs,  may  have 
upon  his  service  in  other  ways.  The  second  is  the 
bar  arising  from  a  man's  own  imperfect  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  his  sacrifice  and  the  result  it  is  likely 


THE    FREE   SACRIFICE  141 

to  produce.  The  same  government  which  by  threats 
and  terrors  restrains  its  subjects  from  suicide,  sends 
its  chosen  soldiers  to  certain  death  for  the  salvation 
of  the  commonwealth.  No  service  that  Nazareth, 
Jerusalem,  or  even  Rome,  might  have  been  able  to 
claim  from  Jesus  the  citizen,  could  weigh  for  one 
moment  against  the  historic  service  He  rendered  to 
universal  man  b\^  His  death,  even  if  we  regard  that 
death  as  a  common  martyrdom,  with  no  supernatural 
end  invoK^ed  in  it.  A  father  controls  the  rieht  of  a 
child  over  his  own  life,  because  of  the  imperfect 
knowledge  possessed  by  that  child  of  the  conditions 
under  which  he  is  acting  ;  and  the  State  controls  the 
right  of  the  father,  because  it  is  assumed  to  be  wiser 
in  its  collective  counsels  than  the  individual  head  of 
the  household.  Our  Lord's  transcendent  knowledge 
surely  made  good  the  claim  He  put  forth  to  sacrifice 
Himself  freely  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  mankind. 
If,  from  the  narratives  of  the  four  evangelists,  we  can 
sustain  the  assertion  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross  was 
definitely  foreseen  ;  that  at  the  outset  there  was  a 
complete  appreciation  of  the  significance  of  all  that 
it  involved  and  implied;  that  His  tragic  death  was  an 
act  of  self-surrender  in  the  fullest  possible  sense,  we 
dispose  of  many  objections  raised  against  that  doc- 
trine of  a  penal  atonement,  which  is  now  indissolubly 
bound  up  with  His  death.  It  is  said  that  the  sacrifice 
savours  of  the  hard  and  cruel  barbarities  of  Fagran 
worship,  but  where  in  the  religious  ritual  of  either 
Jew  or  Gentile  is  the  altar  to  be  found  whose  sacri- 
fices express  a  free  consecration  ?  Savage  tribesmen, 
and  even  some  of  the  great  military  empires,  offered 
up  to  their  gods  the  prisoners  of  war.  The  Jew 
dragged  the  victim  from  the  fold   and  the   farm   to 


142  THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

the  altar.  No  damnatory  accusation  can  lie  against 
the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  the  pain  of  a  substitute 
if  the  pain  is  self-chosen,  and  the  endurance  of  it  is 
free,  at  each  successive  stage  of  the  ordeal. 

Let  us  see  how  our  Lord's  claim  that  He  was 
consecrating  Himself  with  a  perfectly  free  mind  to  a 
sacrificial  death  is  borne  out  by  the  incidents  of  His 
history. 

The  prevision  of  the  Cross,  attributed  to  Jesus 
by  each  of  the  evangelists,  made  escape  from  it 
possible  and  brought  into  unmistakable  prominence 
the  voluntary  factor  in  His  death.  His  unvarying  fore- 
knowledge was  a  lamp  that  lit  up  each  stage  of  the 
coming  pathway.  Some  twelve  or  fifteen  distinct  in- 
stances are  recorded  in  which  He  predicted  His  death, 
together  with  not  a  few  of  its  attendant  circumstances. 

On  the  occasion  of  His  first  visit  to  Jerusalem,  in 
the  character  of  a  public  teacher,  He  intimates  that 
His  career  will  close  in  riot  and  violence,  and  after  a 
brief  interval  will  be  mysteriously  renewed.  "Destroy 
this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  build  it  again." 
After  the  great  confession  at  Cesarea-Philippi,  to  the 
dismay  of  Simon  Peter  and  his  companions,  Jesus 
announces  His  coming  death.  This  unwelcome  subject 
He  resumes  on  His  descent  from  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration in  company  with  the  elect  three.  He  had 
conversed  about  it  with  Moses  and  Elias,  and  broken 
fragments  of  the  dream-like  discourse  seemed  to 
linger  in  the  air.  The  impending  event  is  made 
known  again  to  the  whole  company  of  the  twelve  on 
the  return  to  Capernaum.  In  His  discourse  on  the 
bread,  spoken  in  the  synagogue  of  the  lake-side  town. 
He  utters  the  paradox  that  He  will  give  His  flesh  for 
the  life  of  the  world,  and  that  men   must  eat  and 


THE   FREE   SACRIFICE  143 

drink  of  the  sacrifice,  if  they  are  to  receive  eternal  life. 
He  reaffirms  His  death,  six  months  before  the  close 
of  His  ministry,  as  He  is  leaving  Galilee  for  the  last 
time,  and  setting  out  to  Jerusalem.  Into  the  parable 
before  us,  spoken,  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  He 
.weaves  again  the  tragic  announcement,  and  the 
announcement  has  a  new  significance  because  of 
the  gathering  wrath  of  the  authorities.  After 
crossing  the  fords  of  the  Jordan  on  His  return 
from  Perea,  as  He  is  pushing  His  way  through  the 
thickets  of  bending  oleanders  which  cover  the  plain, 
He  speaks  of  it  again  to  the  twelve  who  are  pre- 
possessed with  other  views.  When  Mary  pours 
forth  her  ointment,  in  the  house  at  Bethany,  He 
says  she  does  it  for  His  "  burial,"  since  the  cross  is 
near.  The  shadow  lies  across  almost  every  parable 
spoken  in  the  Temple  during  the  last  week  of  His 
teaching,  and  He  suggests  also  that  His  death  will 
be  directly  instigated  by  the  Jews.  The  paschal  feast 
on  the  night  preceding  His  crucifixion  is  an  abiding 
monument  of  this  foreknowledge.  The  history  has 
not  been  stretched  or  recast  to  accentuate  this  view, 
for  the  disciples  were  in  moods  that  made  them,  for 
the  time,  all  but  inaccessible  to  the  idea. 

Now  this  indisputable  knowledge  of  an  awaiting 
peril  made  escape  possible,  for  one  at  least  who  was 
not  paralysed  by  the  fatalistic  temper.  The  traveller 
who  sees  the  standard  of  his  enemy  on  the  citadel  of 
a  far-off  horizon  can  change  the  course  of  his  march. 

The  great  mystic,  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  foretold 
the  time  of  his  own  death,  but  such  a  premonition, 
by  depressing  the  vitality  of  the  will,  always  tends  to 
fulfil  itself.  A  modern  doctor  would  probably  have 
tided   him  over  the   crisis  by  opiates.     Our    Lord's 


144  'i^HE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

forecast  of  the  end  was  not  like  the  premonitions 
with  which  the  nerve-specialist  has  to  deal,  pre- 
monitions, which  when  intractable  to  treatment,  carry 
in  themselves  their  own  sentence  of  fatality.  He 
foresaw  the  day,  the  part  played  by  each  separate 
asrent,  the  scenes  and  circumstances  of  the  crucifixion, 
every  link  in  the  series  of  events  not  yet  forged  into 
an  unalterable  chain.  The  forecast  did  not  resolve 
itself  into  a  sense  of  some  mysterious  power 
withering  up  the  life  from  within,  slowing  down  the 
pulses  by  an  inscrutable  touch,  and  paralysing  the 
functions  of  the  brain.  It  was  a  premonition  of 
causes  which  lay  in  an  outward  history  and  might 
have  been  met  by  shrewd  counteraction.  The 
prophetic  light  in  Jesus  Christ  was  again  and  again 
projected  upon  His  future,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
obvious  to  His  followers,  that  every  step  in  the 
way  that  led  to  the  cross  was  a  step  in  the  light, 
— a  conscious  and  purposeful  movement  towards  the 
scene  of  sacrifice.  He  said  little  or  nothing  about 
the  coming  fortunes  of  His  disciples.  Simon  Peter's 
question  about  the  after-days  of  his  comrade  John 
was  passed  by,  and  the  half-century  which  lay  before 
him  was  a  dark  and  troubled  sea  over  whose  tides  no 
single  ray  of  prophecy  quivered.  But  the  path  before 
the  Lord  Himself  was  a  vista  through  which  light 
shone  so  that  His  progress  to  the  dreadful  goal  might 
be  recognised  as  a  progress  of  choice,  deliberation, 
free-will.  Not  a  step,  whatever  the  peril  towards 
which  it  might  be  moving,  was  in  shadow.  Some 
of  the  famous  marches  of  our  armies  have  been 
marches  in  thick  darkness,  with  every  bit  of  glittering 
metal  covered  up  from  view.  The  march  of  the  Son 
of  Man  to  His  cross  was  in  the  broad  noonday.     He 


THE   FREE   SACRIFICE  145 

Himself  saw  whither  the  path  was  trending  and  was 
free  to  turn  aside,  as  you  and  I  are  free  to  face  right 
or  left,  when  we  pass  into  the  street.  It  was  no 
spirit  of  gloomy  fanaticism  which  directed  our 
Lord's  action,  for  He  was  eager  to  secure  the  escape 
of  His  disciples,  and  bade  them  when  persecution 
should  arise  in  the  after-years,  to  flee  from  danger 
and  not  challenge  it ;  so  proving  that  He  felt  the 
peculiar  separateness  of  His  mission  and  how  His 
sacrificial  work  must  be  ennobled  into  redemptive 
virtue   by   its   freeness. 

And  not  only  was  the  path  to  death  illumined  by 
our  Lord's  piercing  prescience,  but  there  diverged  from 
it  many  a  side-track,  by  which  less  noble  and  un- 
selfish men  would  have  found  escape  from  impending 
pain.  The  Via  Dolorosa  was  no  gorge  shut  in  by 
mountain  walls.  Other  routes  were  open  with  no 
forbidding  cross  blocking  the  exit.  Years  ago  an 
army  in  the  Soudan  was  led  by  a  treacherous  guide 
into  a  defile  where  overpowering  numbers  swooped 
down  upon  it  like  an  exterminating  whirlwind.  The 
Son  of  Man  did  not  need  to  fold  His  hands  in  fatalis- 
tic despair  with  the  whisper  of  "  kismet  "  upon  His 
lips.  On  every  side  new  opportunities  seemed  to 
open  and  invite  His  work  as  teacher.  Through  the 
Roman  centurion,  of  open  mind  and  amazing  faith, 
He  might  have  found  entrance  into  more  hopeful 
circles  of  hearers.  The  nobleman,  whose  son  He 
had  healed,  was  of  the  house  of  Herod,  and 
would  perhaps  have  been  too  glad  to  become  the 
patron  of  such  a  prophet.  Was  it  impossible  for 
Him  to  find  refuge  from  His  troubled  life  amongst 
the  devoted  Samaritans  at  Sychar  ?  In  the  borders 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  with  the  words,  "  I  am  not  sent 

II 


146  THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

but  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,"  He 
had  to  turn  aside  from  the  open  doors  which  invited 
Him.  The  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  in  Egypt,  Asia 
Minor,  or  Babylon,  might  have  given  Him  sanctuary 
from  persecution,  and  indeed  His  enemies  at  Jerusa- 
lem half  suspected  Him  of  a  serious  intention  to 
make  His  home  in  some  distant  colony  of  His 
countrymen.  It  was  His  own  decision  to  go  up  to 
Jerusalem  for  the  fatal  Passover.  An  old  tradition 
says  that  the  Greeks,  who  sought  to  speak  with  Him 
at  His  last  visit  to  the  Temple,  had  been  sent  by  the 
King  of  Edessa  to  offer  Him  sanctuary  from  the 
malice  of  the  Jews ;  and  though  the  tradition  may  be 
a  pious  romance,  it  serves  to  show  that,  in  the  view 
of  the  primitive  Church,  He  could  have  found  escape 
from  the  cross  by  meeting  Gentile  good-will  half 
way.  There  was  no  impasse  in  His  destiny.  The 
superstitious  ruffian,  Herod,  affects  the  benevolent 
despot  when  Pilate's  prisoner  is  put  into  his  hand. 
A  paltry  miracle  wrought  before  the  eyes  of  the 
Idumean  tyrant  would  have  conciliated  the  credulous 
soul  and  he  might  have  thereafter  received  Jesus  into 
the  palace  as  a  counter-charm  to  the  ghost  of  the 
Baptist.  But  the  Prophet  will  not  buy  Himself  off 
at  such  a  price.  When  the  unwelcome  prisoner  is 
sent  back  to  Pilate,  the  governor  almost  forgets  the 
austere  dignity  and  reserve  of  a  Roman  official,  in 
the  attempt  to  instruct  Jesus  how  to  get  out  of  the 
toils  which  entangle  Him.  A  word  of  concession  to 
Pilate,  a  bow  in  acknowledgment  of  the  Roman 
suzerainty,  an  explanation  of  the  incriminating 
words  He  is  reported  to  have  spoken,  and  He  is 
free.  No  impossibilities  immured  Him.  He  is 
master  of  His  own  career  to  the  very  end. 


THE   FREE   SACRIFICE  147 


But  not  only  was  the  path  to  the  Cross  lit  up 
by  the  Master's  unclouded  prescience,  and  a  path, 
moreover,  from  which  there  branched  out  many 
possible  courses  of  escape,  but  the  dangers  which 
finally  overwhelmed  His  life  might  have  been  quelled 
and  hurled  back  by  the  power  that  was  His  daily 
possession.  Obedience  to  His  redeeming  vocation 
not  only  led  Him  to  the  post  where  a  sure  and  cruel 
death  awaited  him,  but  He  held  in  abeyance  forces 
by  which  He  could  have  disengaged  Himself  from  the 
terrible  fate  that  was  closing  in  upon  Him.  A  few 
weeks  before  the  end.  He  passed  unharmed  through 
the  stones  that  were  uplifted  against  Him  in  the 
Temple.  The  magic  of  His  speech  disabled  the 
strong,  hardy  constables,  who  had  been  sent  to  arrest 
Him  as  He  was  teaching,  and  their  sinewy  arms  fell 
limp  at  their  sides.  John  tells  us  that  the  soldiers 
and  servants  of  the  high  priest,  led  by  Iscariot  into 
the  garden,  stepped  back  overpowered,  and  fell 
helpless  to  the  ground,  as  though  awed  by  a  new 
gleam  of  the  transfiguration  light.  The  signed 
warrant,  the  official  power  which  commissioned 
them,  and  the  weapons  they  clutched  seemed  to 
shrivel  into  nothingness  in  presence  of  this  trans- 
cendent personality.  They  were  dumb,  and  could 
not  discharge  the  formalities  of  their  task.  It 
is  the  Master  who  steps  up  to  them  with  the 
words,  "  I  am  He  whom  ye  seek."  And  to  show 
how  He  was  to  stand  alone  in  the  supreme  act 
of  sacrifice,  looking  towards  the  disciples.  He  says, 
"  Let  these  go  their  way."  He  surrenders  Himself 
into  hands  that  are  unable  to  seize  Him,  and  mobbed 
and  hounded  though  He  had  been  for  months,  till  that 
moment,  when  He  Himself  let  loose  the  powers  of 


148  THE    FREE   SACRIB^CE 

hell,  not  a  scar  had  disfigured  His  form  or  a  drop  of 
His  sacred  blood  had  been  shed  upon  the  ground. 
To  show  that  His  power  is  undiminished  and  that  His 
dedication  to  death  is  free,  He  heals  the  wound  in- 
flicted by  a  rash  sword  upon  the  ear  of  the  high  priest's 
body-servant.  His  touch  is  still  miraculous,  and  He 
can  undo  the  work  of  violence  and,  if  needs  be,  of 
death  itself.  When  the  rough  soldiers  brought  out 
cords  and  hammer  and  nails,  a  word  or  glance  from 
this  wonderful  captive  would  have  made  them  forget 
the  discipline  of  ruthless  obedience  to  which  they 
had  been  drilled.  He  appeals  to  the  disciples 
against  their  old  deprecation  of  the  Cross,  which 
now  trembles  on  the  verge  of  violence.  "  Thinkest 
thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  the  Father  and  He 
will  presently  send  Me  twelve  legions  of  angels  ? " 
One  had  already  drawn  near  unasked  to  show  that 
His  prayer  could  have  filled  the  empyrean  with  their 
glittering  ranks  of  aid.  They  hovered  near  to  prove 
that  no  man  could  take  His  life  from  Him.  They 
remained  uncalled  to  prove  that  He  was  the  Good 
Shepherd  who  was  laying  down  His  life  that  He 
might  take  it  again,  entitled  by  His  free  sacrifice  to 
an   unlimited   dower  of  the  Father's  love. 

The  freeness  of  our  Lord's  self-dedication  to  death 
was  asserted  in  two  significant  forms  when  He  hung 
upon  the  cross,  by  His  refusal  of  the  medicated  wine  ; 
and  also  by  the  conscious  entrustment  of  His  spirit, 
with  His  last  breath,  into  the  hands  of  the  Father. 
He  dominated  the  crisis  which  arose,  when  soul 
was  to  be  separated  from  body  and  made  death 
itself,  in  the  moment  when  it  took  place,  a  strictly 
voluntary  act, — an  exploit  unprecedented  before  and 
unparalleled  since. 


THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 


149 


The  assertion  of  moral  liberty  is  not  always 
continuous  in  form  or  unfluctuating  in  degree.  By 
vow,  artifice,  or  contract  it  is  possible  for  the  free- 
will of  to-day  to  supersede,  override,  or  delegate,  the 
free-will  that  belongs  to  the  morrow.  The  heroic 
blacksmith  of  the  story  did  this  who,  bitten  by  a 
mad  dog,  at  once  forged  the  link  and  staple  which 
bound  him  against  the  hour  when  uncontrollable 
convulsions  should  set  in,  and  he  was  likely  to 
be  a  peril  to  others.  Mary  Lamb  did  this  when 
symptoms  of  the  mania,  which  had  created  the 
tragedy  of  her  life,  were  beginning  to  reappear,  and 
hand  in  hand  with  her  brother  she  quietly  walked 
to  the  asylum,  where  she  was  to  be  put  under 
restraint  till  the  danger  was  overpast.  When 
Ulysses  filled  the  ears  of  his  sailors  with  wax, 
having  first  bidden  them  knot  him  to  the  mast, 
and  was  rowed  past  the  isle  of  the  Syrens  that 
he  might  listen  to  their  lyre  and  song,  by  the  act 
of  one  day  he  made  himself  a  bondsman  robbed  of 
his  liberty  for  the  next  day.  When  he  heard  the 
strains  of  enchantment  he  would  fain  have  freed 
himself  The  exercise  of  his  liberty  was  not  con- 
tinuous. The  voluntariness  of  our  best  acts  is 
broken,  spasmodic,  subject  to  interruption.  Jesus 
Christ  bound  and  nailed  to  the  cross,  unlike  Ulysses 
knotted  to  the  mast,  has  not  ventured  upon  a  position 
yesterday  from  which  He  would  be  gladly  set  free 
when  the  brutal  scene  of  His  crucifixion  has  been 
reached.  Offer  Him  escape  from  the  cross  into  a  realm 
of  dreams  by  the  opiate,  which  the  kindness  of  Jewish 
women  was  accustomed  to  provide  for  the  condemned 
in  the  hour  of  their  mortal  pain.  "  When  He  had 
tasted  thereof  He  would  not  drink."     In  the  storm- 


150  THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

centre  of  His  terrible  Passion  His  self-surrender  is  no 
less  free  than  when  He  talked  of  His  death  by  the 
lake-side  or  on  the  mount  of  glory.  He  is  not  drifting 
on  the  stream  of  an  uncontrollable  destiny.  Through 
each  successive  stage  of  the  tragedy,  the  self-directing 
will  is  at  work,  in  co-operation  with  the  Father's 
counsels  of  redemption.  In  coming  down  the  white 
raging  rapids  of  great  rivers  the  helmsman  makes  the 
rowers  toil  with  all  their  strength,  for  unless  there  is 
"  weigh  on  "  the  boat  cannot  be  steered.  Drifting 
is  for  the  quiet  pools  below.  In  the  swift-moving 
turmoil  of  the  last  agony  there  was  clear,  strong,  self- 
directing  power.  The  last  flutter  of  the  breath,  which 
is  so  often  a  half-conscious  moan  of  helpless  pain, 
renewed  the  dedication  of  His  life  to  God  for  the  race, 
in  words  stamped  with  choice,  purpose,  the  clear 
intent  of  unshadowed  love.  "  Father,  into  Thy 
hands  I  commit  My  spirit." 

The  claim,  that  His  resurrection  was  as  free  and 
self-determined  as  His  death,  does  not  lend  itself  to 
the  same  process  of  historical  argument,  for  the 
materials  with  which  to  build  the  syllogism  are 
wanting.  No  mortal  eye  could  watch  the  volition 
which  directed  the  spirit,  when  it  came  back  from  the 
Father's  presence  to  the  form  sleeping  within  Joseph's 
tomb.  But  the  sovereign  vigour  of  will  in  the  hour 
and  event  of  death  seems  to  speak  of  an  unrelaxed 
motive-force  that  can  work  beyond  death  and  undo 
the  devastations  of  an  irretrievable  fatality  by  the 
same  kingly  mandate  which  had  produced  separa- 
tion from  the  outward  form.  Unlike  the  common 
death-process,  sooner  or  later  awaiting  all  of  us,  no 
depressed  sense  of  vitality  appeared,  no  weakened 
hold  upon  the  secret  and   mystic  principle.     Some 


THE  frp:e  sacrifice  151 

writers  have  seen  in  the  miracle  of  walking  upon  the 
sea,  which  implied  perhaps  a  temporary  transfigura- 
tion of  the  body,  as  well  as  in  the  more  complete 
transfiguration  on  Hermon,  graded  signs  of  the 
resurrection.  Such  analogies  are  instructive.  The 
miracle  of  walking  upon  the  sea  implied  an  ante- 
cedent miracle  which  took  place  within  the  human 
form  of  our  Lord  Himself,  or  rather  perhaps  was  the 
putting  forth  of  latent  reserves  of  power  which  had 
long  been  sleeping  within  the  subliminal  conscious- 
ness. By  dormant  attributes  of  His  nature  just  called 
into  uprising  He  was  lifted  above  the  physical 
restrictions  which  hem  in  common  men  and  women. 
He  could  pass  beyond  those  frontiers  with  which  the 
disciples  were  confined  for  the  term  of  their  mortal 
lives.  To  show  that  He  is  master  of  all  physical 
conditions  is  a  long  step  towards  proving  that  His 
subjection  to  death  is  free  and  that  He  cannot  be 
holden  of  it  as  a  helpless  victim.  The  transfiguration 
which  brought  Him  into  open  fellowship  with  the 
spirit-world  was  an  illumination  shed  by  an  inward 
sun,  till  in  due  time  face  and  form  were  suffused  with 
radiance,  and  the  raiment  itself  became  white  and 
glistering.  His  will,  invigorated  by  prayer,  and  joining 
itself  to  the  will  of  the  Father,  could  transcend  the 
conditions  of  mortality.  May  we  not  here  see  a 
voucher  for  the  claim  that  having  laid  down  His  life 
He  could  take  it  again,  and  an  anticipation  of  what 
the  disciples  afterwards  saw  when  the  first  day  of 
the  week  began  to  dawn?  If  the  spirit,  bound  by 
the  senses,  could  lift  the  flesh  above  the  infirmities 
and  limitations  of  earth,  could  not  that  same  spirit, 
fresh  from  the  presence  of  the  Father  and  from  the 
eternal    well-springs   of  life  on  high,  reanimate   the 


152  THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

flesh  and  raise  its  transformed  powers  into  deathless 
realms  ? 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  more  closely  at  the 
terms  in  which  Jesus  describes  His  voluntary 
sacrifice. 

His  self-elected  death  is  guarded  by  the  assurance 
of  a  resurrection,  equally  free  and  self-determined, 
against  the  reckless  selfishness  which  rushes  from 
the  burdens  of  life.  "  I  lay  down  My  life  that 
I  may  take  it  again."  His  responsibility  for  the 
flock  does  not  end  in  a  scene  of  violence  and 
bloodshed,  with  a  final  act  of  heroism.  The 
premeditated  descent  into  death  links  itself  with 
a  voluntary  return  from  death.  A  relaxed  hold  on 
life  may  now  and  again  be  due  to  considerations 
which  are  sordid  and  predominantly  selfish.  The 
martyrdom  of  the  battlefield  is  in  some  instances 
a  thinly-veiled  felo-de-se.  The  soldier  who  rushes 
with  set  teeth  into  a  hailstorm  of  death  may  chance 
to  be  a  man  crossed  in  love  or  thwarted  in  his  early 
ambition,  one  who  has  fled  from  the  entanglements 
of  early  folly  or  the  miseries  of  a  divided  home,  and 
who  has  little  to  bind  him  to  life.  Lord  Byron's 
valour  in  espousing  the  cause  of  Greek  independence, 
and  entering  upon  the  campaign  in  which  he  fell 
a  victim  to  fever,  owed  not  a  little  of  its  impelling 
motive  to  disgust  with  European  society,  combined 
with  that  acute  self-disgust  inseparable  from  the  past 
life  he  had  lived.  Direct  or  indirect  self-slaughter, 
whatever  the  public  pity  it  may  call  forth,  is  some- 
times mean,  ignoble,  cowardly.  The  wish  to  com- 
pound for  the  crosses,  mortifications,  and  fretting 
duties  of  life,  may  not  be  quite  strange  to  the 
minds    of   some    of    us.      A    death,    bepraised    by 


THE   FREE  SACRIFICE  153 

jingo  poets  and   pressmen  as  sublime,  may  have  in 
it   unsounded   depths   of  moral   delinquency,  if  it   is 
sought  as  an  escape    from    something  which  ought 
to    be    faced.      Extreme     meanness,    or     matchless 
heroism,  may  be  concealed  under  a  death  identical 
in  its  outward   form.     The  Saviour  of  men  entered 
into  death  not  that  He  might  evade  responsibilities 
which  were  pressing   with    intolerable   weight  upon 
His  soul,  but  that  having   renewed   His  life  in   the 
presence  of  the  Father,  He  might  sustain  old  respon- 
sibilities with  new  spiritual  forces  derived  from  His 
atoning  death.     He  was  seeking  no  plunge  into  the 
unknown,  or  the  possibly  non-existent,  as  a  refuge 
from  the  tempest  of  His  hurtling  woes,  no  Buddhist 
state  of  unconsciousness,  where  He  might  forget  His 
own  blighted  programme    and    the  ingratitude  and 
rancour  of  His  countrymen,  no  dreamless  sleep,  in 
which    He   would    be    incapable   of  either   pain    or 
sympathy.     "  I   lay  down   My  life  that  I   may  take 
it  again."     His   assurance  that  He  could  recover  it 
at  will  was  the  only  justification  of  His  sacrifice.     A 
solemn  trust  from  God  must  not  be  lightly  resigned. 
Jesus  felt  in   His  hand  the  keys   of  the  grave,  and, 
because  of  His  equal  command  over  seen  and  unseen 
realms,   He  bowed  his  head  upon  the  cross,  with  a 
new  life  already  emerging  into  view,  whose  powers 
and  capacities  He  was  to  use  as  minister  of  salvation 
to  His  people. 

The  sacrifice  was  protected  against  the  wilfulness 
of  caprice  by  the  authority  which  ordained  it.  "  This 
commandment  have  I  received  of  My  Father."  It 
was  no  private  experiment  upon  which  He  was 
venturing  that  might  issue  in  futile  pain  and 
vacuous  soul-travail.     The  temper  of  the  volunteer 


154  THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

who  despises  law  is  apt  to  degenerate  into  a  wanton 
and  precarious  slavery  to  self.  The  phrase  "  I  will 
because  I  have  so  chosen "  represents  a  mood  of 
offensive,  headstrong,  fantastic  egoism.  There  are 
morbid  and  obstinate  people  who  are  better  contented 
by  pain  than  by  pleasure.  The  alienists  sometimes 
describe  a  mental  disease  which  shows  itself  by  a 
preference  for  states  of  misery.  It  is  a  specific 
mania.  Perhaps  such  people  have  been  tempted 
into  their  abnormal  moods  of  mind  by  the  self-pity 
they  bestow  upon  themselves,  or  by  the  bid  they  thus 
make  for  the  sympathy  of  others.  Or  such  minds 
may  be  obsessed  with  a  chronic  sense  of  demerit, 
which  leads  them  to  expect  worse  retributions,  when 
the  common  daily  afflictions  seem  to  pause  for  a 
moment.  This  diseased  state  of  mind  sometimes 
leads  to  inordinate  self-mortifications,  which  have 
for  their  object  the  idea  of  appeasing  Divine  dis- 
pleasure. Men  afflict  themselves,  and  their  piety  is 
a  hideous  form  of  self-indulgence,  the  luxury  of 
caprice,  the  wanton,  malignant  egoism  which  obeys 
no  law.  The  self-elected  death  of  Jesus  was  kept 
from  the  least  taint  of  wilfulness  by  the  spirit  of  filial 
love,  which  informed  every  act  converging  towards  it. 
Freedom  attains  its  crowning  distinction  in  the  loving 
acceptance  of  the  noblest  law.  The  choice  of  death 
made  by  Jesus  Christ  was  enlightened  submission. 
The  victim  did  not  exceed  or  outrun  the  lines  of 
His  appointed  destiny.  There  was  no  ostentation  or 
extravagance  in  the  sacrifice,  but  a  meek,  free,  obedient 
co-operation  with  the  righteous  purposes  of  the  Father. 
"  This  commandment  have  I  received  of  My  Father." 
Such  a  sacrifice,  irrespective  of  a  specific  requirement 
in  the  Divine  Government  of  men,  would  have  made 


THE   FREE   SACRIFICE  155 

the  Trinity  a  schism  and  a  paradox.  By  offering  an 
unwarranted  oblation,  Jesus  Christ  would  have 
repeated  the  sin  of  the  first  Adam,  and  perhaps 
also  of  Cain,  grasping  Divine  prerogatives  and  ac- 
counting Himself  one  qualified  to  prescribe  to  the 
Eternal.  The  terms  in  which  Jesus  sets  forth  His 
sacrifice  pay  homage  to  the  Triune  mystery. 

Here,  too,  we  find  the  point  of  harmony  between 
our  Lord's  avowal  that  He  had  power  to  take  back 
His  life,  and  Paul's  subsequent  statement  that  He  was 
raised  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father.  It 
was  the  perpetual  outflow  of  the  Father's  life  and 
authority  into  the  Son,  which  gave  to  Him  the  power 
of  effecting  His  own  resurrection,  an  outflow  that 
could  never  be  suspended  or  broken  off.  The  glory 
of  the  Father  had  been  in  Him  from  the  beginning, 
inspiring  His  will,  animating  His  redemptive  love, 
energising  and  irradiating  His  holy  flesh,  till,  like 
a  greater  Samson,  He  carried  away  the  gates  of 
Hades  and  on  the  wrecked  empire  of  darkness 
planted   His  new  throne  of  grace  and  power. 

The  great  Teacher  asserts  that  His  voluntary  sac- 
rifice establishes  a  surpassing  claim  upon  the  Father's 
love.  "  Therefore  doth  My  Father  love  Me  because 
I  lay  down  My  life  that  I  might  take  it  again." 
Beneath  this  avowal  there  lies  the  great  common 
principle,  which  is  the  key  to  the  problems  of  a 
universe  whose  foundations  are  laid  in  moral 
freedom.  For  the  moment  tremendous  drawbacks 
are  inseparable  from  the  principle,  but  yet  greater 
drawbacks  would  arise  if  it  were  revoked.  God  can 
only  love,  with  all  the  affluence  and  fervour  of  this 
sacred  passion,  the  being  who  is  free.  The  capacity 
for  moral  liberty  is,  from  another  point  of  view  the 


156  THE   FREE   SACRIFICE 

capacity  for  an  appreciative  acceptance  of  God's  rich, 
unstinted,  immeasurable  favour.     No  creature  devoid 
of  moral   functions  can   ever  hope  to  be  filled  with 
the  fulness  of  God.     Whilst  God  looks  with  pleasure 
upon  all  the  beings  His  hands  have  made,  and  rejoices 
in  the  tuneful  movements  of  their  life,  no  slave  of  an 
inevitable  necessity  can   ever  move   His  love  to  its 
profoundest   depth   and    awaken    its    most  complete 
response.      Love  is  limited  in  the  range  of  its  mani- 
festations,   to   the    areas   of   moral    freedom    in    the 
unseen  life  of  those  who  are  its  objects.     The  mani- 
fold  and  varying  orders  of  nature  grouped  around 
the  throne  of  God  are  like  different  qualities  of  gold- 
bearing  quartz.     The  most  perfect  chemistry  and  the 
most  ingenious   methods  cannot  get  fifty  ounces  of 
gold  out  of  a  ton  of  crushed  quartz,  bearing  only  five 
ounces.     God  Himself  cannot  draw  a  love,  which  is 
the   most  precious   thing  in    His  universe,  out  of  a 
tree,   an    impersonal    stream,  a   sentient    automaton 
or    a    mere    slave,    within    whose   soul    the    gift   of 
liberty    has    not    yet    dawned.      It   is    out    of    the 
freest   natures   that    God    receives  the   highest  love 
and  responds  to  it,  and  the  nature  of  God's  Son  is 
free   with   the   freedom    of  God    Himself,    and    His 
transcendent  sacrifice  is  unconstrained.     He  receives 
more  love  from  the  Father  than  any  other  because  in 
His  self-dedication  to  death  He  has  shown  a  love  for 
which  no  other  being  possesses  the  capacity. 

The  measure  of  moral  freedom  in  one  order  of 
being  may  be  less  wide  and  comprehensive  than 
in  another,  and  He  may  be  capable,  therefore,  only 
of  a  narrower  obedience.  This  fundamental  gift  in 
all  rational  life  reaches  its  maximum  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  His  obedience  to  death  was  unconstrained  as  no 


THE    P^REE   SACRIFICE  157 


other  act  of  obedience,  and  possessed  merits  and 
virtues  that  have  no  parallel.  Here  was  the  cul- 
minating exercise  of  a  gift  that  had  hitherto  been 
chiefly  abused,  a  transcendent  choice  of  the  best 
under  conditions  of  tremendous  pain,  of  a  death 
to  which  He  marched  by  His  own  unselfish  intent, 
and  it  was  this  which  entitled  Him  to  His  ample 
and  munificent  inheritance  in  the  Father's  love. 
With  power  to  lay  down  His  life  and  power  to 
take  it  again,  He  gave  Himself  for  our  sins  and 
rose  again  for  our  justification.  In  a  world  of 
necessitated  acts,  God  would  be  robbed  of  the  love 
of  His  creatures,  and  creatures  would  be  robbed  of  the 
richer  love  of  God  ;  and  such  a  sacrifice  as  that  which 
enthrones  the  Redeemer  in  the  Father's  love,  where 
He  makes  intercession  for  us,  would  be  impossible. 
The  claim  established  upon  the  approval  of  high 
Heaven  by  this  free  sacrifice  is  as  much  an  advance 
upon  the  quality  of  our  imperfect  moral  actions,  as 
our  best  actions  are  an  advance  upon  the  movements 
of  unconscious  atoms.  Here  we  must  find  the  true 
measure  of  our  Lord's  power  as  Mediator.  He  is 
put,  by  this  free  devotion,  into  a  place  of  influence 
which  we  can  no  more  imagine  than  we  can  search 
out  the  deep  mysteries  of  the  eternal  love. 

It  was  no  unwilling  Son  who  was  punished  for  the 
sin  of  a  guilty  race.  A  holy,  righteous,  and  gentle 
God  could  not  accept  the  expiations  of  a  constrained 
obedience.  The  higher  virtue  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  as 
compared  with  those  of  the  Old  Testament  times, 
rested  upon  His  immeasurably  higher  nature,  and 
in  nothing  did  that  transcendent  nature  more  im- 
pressively assert  itself  than  in  the  complete  and 
infinite  freedom  of  His  devotion  to  death  for  man- 


158  THE    FREE   SACRIFICE 

kind.  This  sacrificial  act  was  without  constraint, 
meritorious  beyond  words  to  describe,  Divine,  free 
with  the  incomparable  freedom  of  infinite  love  and 
power. 

If  our  Lord's  dedication  to  the  work  of  redeeming 
men  was  free,  make  your  dedication  to  His  service 
free  likewise.  Let  there  be  no  constraint  of  law,  of 
tradition,  or  of  circumstance.  Make  His  voluntary 
service  of  the  race  your  standard  of  constant  service 
to  His  person,  and  His  kingdom  amongst  men.  If, 
in  denying  yourself  worldly  lusts  and  living  the  life 
of  godliness  and  faith,  you  are  still  indebted  to  the 
pressure  of  public  opinion,  if  you  are  kept  in  the 
path  of  duty  by  human  influences,  associations, 
importunities,  rather  than  by  your  sense  of  obli- 
gation to  the  God  of  redeeming  love,  if  religious 
service  is  a  bondage  and  not  the  assertion  of  per- 
sonal will,  choice,  and  deliberate  consecration,  you 
have  scarcely  any  glimmering  of  the  ideal  set  for 
the  disciple  in  the  free  and  unconstrained  love  of 
the  Lord.  You  know  and  feel  that  God  could  not 
have  accepted  for  men  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  His 
Son,  unless  it  had  been  free,  nor  would  you  demean 
yourself  by  accepting  the  grace  of  the  Cross  if  it  were 
offered  to  you  by  a  bond-slave,  one  who  suffered  for 
you  in  virtue  of  a  dark  and  inscrutable  fate,  rather 
than  of  his  own  free  intent.  Answer  this  willing  sac- 
rifice by  a  willing  consecration.  Do  not  wait  to  be 
moved  by  forces  which  are  little  short  of  compulsory 
and  resistless.  Do  not  desire  overwhelming  pressures, 
entreaties,  exhortations.  The  spiritual  manifestations 
which  would  save  you,  willing  or  nilling,  could  not 
put  you  into  an  improved  standing  before  God. 
Answer  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  vicarious  love  by 


THE   FREE   SACRIFICE  159 


free  personal  dedication.  He  came  to  earth  without 
a  constraint  and  marched  through  His  pilgrimage 
of  woe  to  the  end  without  a  compulsion.  Let  this 
spirit  possess  you  in  your  approach  to  the  Cross  so 
that  you  may  be  enriched  by  its  graces.  Make  it  the 
note  of  your  daily  self-consecration  in  the  presence 
of  this  unexampled  love. 


IX 
THE    REDEMPTIVE    COMPENSATION 

"  Who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before   Him  endured  the 
cross." — Heb.  xii.  2. 

Our  Lord's  work  is  here  presented  to  us  under  a 
common  similitude  with  that  of  the  disciples.  The 
exhortation  of  the  preceding  verse  brings  before  us 
the  picture  of  a  Greek  athlete  running  his  race,  and 
the  same  kind  of  phraseology  is  used  to  depict  the 
work  of  Him  who  is  both  the  Saviour  and  Example 
of  His  followers.  His  prize  was  the  joy  set  before 
Him  as  the  crowned  and  triumphant  Saviour  of 
mankind  ;  His  destined  course  the  cross  He  meekly 
endured  and  the  shame  He  effectually  despised. 

The  impression  conveyed  by  the  earthly  life  of  the 
Son  of  Man  was  not  that  of  gloom  and  despondency. 
The  ecclesiastical  tradition,  that  He  was  never  seen 
to  smile,  is  untrue  to  the  spirit  of  the  Four  Gospels, 
and  was  obviously  the  after-fancy  of  a  morbid  and 
ascetic  generation.  It  is  from  the  observer's  stand- 
point,  rather   than    from   that   of   His  own   interior 

consciousness,  that  Jesus  is  described  as  "  a  Man  of 

160 


THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  i6i 


Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief."  The  Cross,  it  is 
true,  was  often  present  to  His  mind,  but  the  vision 
of  a  joy  beyond  the  Cross  was  no  less  real  and 
abiding.  His  nature  had  not  been  shrivelled  and 
desiccated  by  the  omens  of  His  coming  Passion, 
like  some  tree  on  a  north-east  shore  bitten  by 
Arctic  winds.  "The  Son  of  Man  came  eating  and 
drinking,"  for  He  did  not  need  to  mortify  His  holy 
nature  by  asceticism,  and  His  appointed  sacrifice  was 
bound  to  have  its  surpassing  compensations.  The 
dark,  sunless  moods,  which  might  have  seemed 
inseparable  from  the  tragedy  in  which  His  ministry 
was  to  close,  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  magnetism 
of  His  personality.  No  rabbi,  with  eyes  red  from 
daily  weeping,  could  have  woven  his  spells  about 
healthy,  stalwart  fishermen  whose  life  had  been 
passed  in  the  open  air  and  the  sun.  No  prophet, 
consumed  with  a  cancer  of  incurable  inward  grief 
could  have  been  welcomed  at  banquets,  by  those 
who  questioned  his  teaching  and  resisted  his 
message.  Is  it  conceivable  that  Simon  the  Phari- 
see, and  the  select  circles  of  Perea,  wanted  Him  as  a 
death's-head  at  their  feastings,  just  as  the  eccentric 
Egyptians  used  to  bring  a  mummy  into  the  midst 
of  their  merry-making,  a  dumb  monitor  of  mor- 
tality? Some  secret  of  inward  joy  kept  Him 
winsome,  or  He  could  not  have  drawn  women  and 
children  in  crowds  wherever  He  went.  No  man  with 
thoughts  always  fixed  upon  his  own  lot  of  ignominy 
and  distress,  could  have  said,  "  I  will  give  you  rest," 
without  making  his  promise  a  burlesque,  and  exciting 
derisive  smiles.  With  a  life  wasted  in  sighing  and 
fear  He  could  not  have  spoken  to  His  disciples  of  a 
joy  that  was  to  be  filled  from  the  head-springs  of  His 

12 


i62  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

own.     At  the  base  of   the  passion-flower  a  drop  of 
nectar  was  hidden,  incomparable  in  its  sweetness. 

His  joy,  drawn  from  sure  forecasts  of  the  future, 
availed  to  alleviate  and  transfigure  the  oppressions 
of  the  passing  hour.  It  enabled  Him  to  sustain  the 
heaviest  of  all  crosses,  the  cross  weighted  with  uni- 
versal sin  ;  and  to  despise  the  most  stinging  of  all 
shames,  rejection  at  the  hands  of  those  whom  He 
had  loved  with  unexampled  sincerity  and  devotion. 
It  nerved  for  that  heroic  shout  of  triumph,  as  death 
made  ready  to  steal  upon  the  senses,  which  startled 
the  iron-souled  centurion. 

A  gibbet  loomed  like  a  grim  landmark  over  the 
last  lap  of  His  earthly  pathway;  and  its  indescribable 
torture  and  degradation  were  to  be  endured  alone. 
A  profound  reproach  the  first  shadow  of  which  was 
to  drive  every  disciple  into  hiding  was  to  be  con- 
fronted by  One  accustomed  to  the  reverence  of 
devoted  followers  and  with  the  high  praises  of 
heaven  yet  ringing  in  Pi  is  ears  ;  to  be  confronted 
and  despised  !  And  all  this  in  the  strength  of  a 
joy  that  seemed  very  far  off!  An  uncommon  joy 
this,  and  assured  by  no  light  guarantees!  What 
was  the  joy?    and  how  was  it  assured? 

One  element  of  this  joy  was  the  sense  of  satis- 
faction, inherent  in  all  acts  which  are  noble  in  their 
own  essential  qualities.  It  is  just  as  much  a  joy  to 
God,  and  to  those  within  whose  nature  gleams  of  His 
high  moral  attributes  are  reflected,  to  do  holy  and 
gracious  things,  as  it  is  for  the  bird  to  sing,  the 
\  young  creatures  of  field  and  forest  to  leap  in  the 
.  first  bliss  of  life,  the  born  artist  to  group  and  colour 
i4eal  forms,  or  the  musician,  with  a  genius  for  his 
wo^rk,  to  beat  out  his  rushing  inspirations  in  cadence 


THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  163 


and  symphony.  The  fulness  of  God's  nature  pro- 
claims itself  in  deeds  of  spiritual  splendour.  The 
heroisms  that  uplift  the  sentiment  of  nations,  calling 
forth  epics  and  anthems  to  stir  the  life-blood  through 
the  successive  centuries,  are  the  staple  moralities  of 
His  daily  life,  the  sum  and  substance  of  His  com- 
mon consciousness.  But  redemption  is  the  crowning 
heroism  of  God,  in  comparison  with  which  His  daily 
providences  of  grace  and  righteousness  are  normal 
moralities.  The  ideal  set  forth  in  the  Atonement  must 
have  had  a  power  to  enchant  the  soul  of  the  Eternal 
Son,  beyond  any  other  thought  growing  up  out  of 
His  relation  to  the  order  of  the  created  worlds.  One 
factor  in  the  joy  set  before  Him  was  the  hope  of 
compassing  a  heroism  supreme  even  amidst  the 
sublime  achievements  of  the  Godhead.  The  thrill 
which  belongs  to  all  noble  doing,  vitalised  His 
mission,  and  did  not  altogether  cease  amidst  the 
dark  and  painful  processes  of  its  accomplishment. 
His  nature  was  possessed  by  the  high  and  daring 
thought  which  expressed  itself  through  His  sacrifice. 
Another  element  in  this  joy,  or  perhaps  we  should 
rather  say  the  same  element  traced  back  to  its  root- 
sanction,  was  the  blessedness  felt  in  working  out  His 
Father's  counsels  of  redemption.  As  He  judged 
things,  noble  doing  gathered  a  higher  fascination  from 
that  clear,  gracious  light  of  vivid  approval,  with  which 
the  Father  looked  upon  it.  The  Atonement  was  an  act 
of  filial  piety.  Love  always  finds  the  service  of  the 
being  who  worthily  attracts  it  a  beatitude,  and  the 
strength  and  intensity  of  the  love  become  a  measure 
of  the  beatitude  received.  The  joy  of  Jesus  in  fulfill- 
ing the  redemptive  purposes  of  that  heart  in  which 
He  had  always   dwelt,   is   commensurate   with    His 


i64  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

deep,   unsounded,   mysterious,  age-long   love   to   the 
Father. 

A  touching  legend  of  filial  piety  has  connected 
itself  with  one  of  the  great  bells  in  a  temple  near 
Peking.  A  famous  worker  in  metals,  it  is  said,  had 
received  the  Emperor's  command  to  cast  a  bell  of 
unusual  size,  the  tone  of  which  was  to  surpass  in 
richness  and  melody  all  other  bells.  Severe  penalties 
were  threatened,  if  he  came  short  of  the  wishes  of  his 
exacting  master.  He  tried  and  failed,  tried  and  failed 
again,  and  was  upon  the  point  of  giving  up  his  task 
in  despair.  At  this  crisis  in  his  fortunes,  his  only 
daughter,  a  maiden  of  great  beauty  and  virtue,  went 
secretly  to  consult  an  astrologer.  The  man  of  magic 
told  her  the  work  could  only  be  brought  to  a  suc- 
cessful accomplishment,  if  the  blood  of  a  chaste  virgin 
were  mingled  with  the  molten  metal,  when  it  was 
ready  to  be  poured  into  the  mould.  Returning  home 
she  asked  leave  to  watch  her  father's  work,  and 
when  the  ingredients  had  been  fused  and  were  seeth- 
ing in  the  vast  cauldron,  in  an  outburst  of  filial  piety, 
she  threw  herself  into  the  sea  of  fire.  The  bell  thus 
cast  proved  of  incomparable  quality,  and  whenever  it 
is  struck,  the  natives  of  the  district  think  they  hear 
the  girl's  dying  cry,  in  the  sweetness  and  pathos  of 
its  notes.  Such  filial  piety,  if  achieved  at  all,  could 
only  be  achieved  through  struggle  and  consummated 
in  dire  distress.  The  legend  represents  the  last  cry  of 
the  victim  as  a  weird  note  of  pain,  a  vox  huniana 
trembling  up  out  of  inscrutable  abysses  of  tribulation. 
The  Chinese  imagination  had  scarcely  soared  into 
those  spiritual  realms  where  Divine  love  can  change 
pain  into  contentment  and  perfect  triumph.  Jesus 
passed    through    seas    of   mysterious    darkness    and 


THE   REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  165 

fire  to  fulfil  His  Father's  ^ood  pleasure  in  human 
salvation,  but  before  death  came,  the  wail  of  distress 
passed  into  the  shout  of  triumph.  Love  made  it  a 
profound  and  solemn  delight  to  do  the  Father's  will 
in  awful  scenes  of  sacrifice.  Whilst  the  pathos  of 
redeeming  sorrow  still  surges  like  an  undertone  in  the 
message  of  the  Gospel,  that  undertone  is  reinforced 
by  a  major  note  of  victory  and  fulfilment.  It  was 
more  than  life  to  have  a  sense  of  the  Father's  utter- 
most approval. 

The  joy  set  before  Him  consisted  also  in  a  vision 
of  the  immeasurable  benefits  He  was  to  bring  to 
His  redeemed  people,  through  the  reconciliation 
achieved  by  the  Cross.  The  knowledge  that  along 
this  thorny  and  shadowed  pathway  He  was  carry- 
ing health  and  healing  to  a  multitude,  whose  num- 
bers were  beyond  human  reckoning,  was  in  itself  an 
earnest  of  endless  satisfactions.  Those  who  have 
studied  the  human  heart  are  the  first  to  recognise 
that  its  most  definite  and  enduring  felicities  arise  from 
the  possession  and  exercise  of  power  to  assuage  and 
dispel  pain.  What  a  luxury  to  give  rest  to  some 
dumb,  suffering  brute  which  comes  to  the  feet  of  its 
wise  master  with  fixed,  beseeching  eyes !  What  a 
delight  to  dry  a  child's  tears,  even  when  those  tears 
have  been  started  by  the  trivial  disappointment,  or 
the  ignorant  fears  of  a  moment  only !  How  soul- 
contenting  to  have  suggested  some  way  of  abating 
the  fever  in  the  veins  of  a  tossing  sufferer,  or  to  have 
sent  that  which  gives  ease  to  the  cramped  and  aching 
limbs  of  the  bed-ridden  !  If  the  discoverer  of  chloro- 
form could  have  realised  how  for  millions  who  must 
needs  pass  under  the  surgeon's  knife,  he  has  changed 
the  operating  theatre  from  a  chamber  of  torture  into 


i66  THE   REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

a  house  of  dreams,  surely  he  would  have  lived  for  the 
rest  of  his  days  in  a  halo  of  radiancy  and  peace.  If 
some  gifted  mind  healer  could  go  into  an  asylum, 
dispel  as  by  a  wand  the  morbid  images  thronging  the 
air,  dismiss  into  oblivion  the  fears  and  fixed  ideas 
that  tyrannise  over  diseased  minds  and  send  crowds  of 
sufferers,  in  brave  and  cheerful  health,  to  their  homes, 
he  would  have  more  happiness  than  all  the  million- 
aires of  New  York  City  possess  in  common.  Great 
victories,  achieved  in  the  fight  against  pain,  have 
within  themselves  a  magic  reward  which  is  simply 
Divine. 

How  can  we  conceive  or  describe  the  soul-satis- 
faction realised  by  Jesus  in  cooling,  with  the  balm 
of  His  mercy,  the  torment  of  human  passion,  in  un- 
loosing the  coiling,  crushing  madness  of  sin  which 
enthrals  deathless  spirits,  in  drying  not  the  tears  of 
passing  vexation  and  disappointment  only,  but 
tears  charged  with  the  omens  of  bitter,  irreversible 
despair?  It  may  sound  like  rhapsody  and  romance 
to  selfish  ears,  but  to  go  down  into  the  gulf  and  hush 
the  wail  of  condemned,  habit-bound,  desponding 
spirits  and  to  awaken  there  the  hallelujahs  of  the 
saved,  was  a  crowning  felicity  reserved  for  the  infinite 
love  of  Jesus  !  Every  joy  in  the  man  who  becomes 
the  subject  of  the  great  deliverance  repeats  itself  in 
the  author  of  salvation,  for  not  only  is  He  afflicted  in 
all  the  afflictions  of  His  people,  but  in  a  hundredfold 
degree  He  participates  in  all  their  gladness  likewise. 

What  a  joy  He  anticipated  in  being  able  hereafter 
to  enter  upon  that  rich  inheritance  of  love,  from 
His  redeemed  people,  to  which  He  should  entitle 
Himself!  Through  the  mystery  of  the  Cross  He 
was  about  to  win  for  Himself  of  a  strain  of  devo- 


THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  167 

Hon,  hitherto  unknown  through  the  ranges  of  the 
intelh'gent  universe.  Whilst  the  shining  hosts,  serving 
before  the  throne  of  God  on  high  could  say,  "  Our 
being  has  its  rise  in  His  creative  power,  and  the  glory 
which  clothes  us  is  a  dim  reflection  of  the  eternal 
splendour,"  it  would  hereafter  be  the  privilege  of 
the  Church,  purchased  with  His  blood,  to  say,  *'He 
led  us  from  abysses  of  shame  by  giving  up  a  sacred 
and  perfect  life  for  our  ransom,  and  we  were  washed 
to  this  resplendent  whiteness  in  streams  which  issued 
from  His  broken  heart."  The  ever-widening  visions 
of  the  ages  will  deepen  this  grateful  devotion,  for 
to  set  forth  the  greatness  of  the  salvation  wrought 
out  by  His  sacrifice,  a  vast  series  of  successive  revela- 
tions will  be  needed.  Nothing  less  than  a  whole 
eternity  can  open  out  the  deep  meanings  of  the 
expiation  which  rescued  the  race  from  its  despair, 
and  no  term  of  time  however  extended,  can  unfold 
and  express  the  rapt  love  of  those  who  find  themselves 
numbered  with  the  redeemed.  Most  suitably  is  the 
Lord  who  died  for  us,  named  the  Bridegroom  of  the 
Church,  for  a  love  responds  to  His  transcendent 
service,  such  as  none  other  can  receive.  The  intense, 
overflowing  homage  paid  to  His  glorified  humanity 
represents  a  new  quality  of  emotion  in  the  uni- 
verse. No  other  being  can  enter  into  its  secret.  The 
worship  of  angels  is  a  chastened  reverence  in  com- 
parison with  the  rare  and  sacred  love  He  is  winning 
from  His  Bride  the  Church.  Such  a  superhuman 
sacrifice  was  sure  to  receive  its  tribute  of  unexampled 
gratitude.  To  be  thus  enriched  was  a  joy  that  out- 
weighed the  Cross  and  the  shame. 

If  the  fragrance  from  Mary's  broken  cruse  of  nard, 
carried  its  silent  message  of  sympathy  to  His  wounded 


[68  THE   REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSAt.CON 


spirit  and  became  a  solace  beyond  price  as  the  chill 
shadow  of  death  fell,  how  plenteous  will  be  the  blessed- 
ness, when  from  every  kindred,  manifold  types  of 
womanhood  made  tender  and  holy  by  the  Cross,  sanc- 
tified into  finer  gentleness  and  vibrant  with  higher 
emotion,  bend  at  His  feet!  If,  when  Judas  had  left  the 
feast.  He  called  His  poor  remnant  of  followers  chil- 
dren and  friends,  and  the  stress  of  the  inward  storm 
ceased  for  awhile,  who  can  tell  the  serene  delight  with 
which  when  this  world's  night-tide  flushes  into  the 
endless  dawn,  having  called  to  His  side  the  perfected 
fellowship  of  the  disciples.  He  shall  celebrate  with 
them  anew  in  the  kingdom  of  His  Father  the  mercy 
which  has  redeemed  ?  H,  after  receiving  the  troth  of 
the  repentant  apostle  by  the  lake-shore.  He  was  satis- 
fied with  the  first-fruit  of  His  soul-travail,  and  could 
take  painless  farewell  of  His  friends,  who  can  describe 
His  deep  content  when  recovered  wanderers  of  every 
age  and  clime  meet  in  the  domains  of  light  where  He 
reigns,  loving  much  because  they  have  much  forgiven, 
and  bearing  the  scars  of  patient  crucifixions  and  God- 
glorifying  deaths?  When  He  receives  the  Bride, 
ransomed  by  a  price  paid  for  no  other,  and  vowing  a 
love  yielded  to  no  other  friend  or  lord,  well  may  the 
anthem  fill  regenerated  worlds,  "  God,  thy  God,  hath 
anointed  thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy 
fellows."  How  incomparably  strong  and  sacred  the 
bond  woven  between  Himself  and  His  elect 
people  !  By  the  way  of  a  soul-oppressing  sorrow  He 
passed  to  a  new  secret  of  peace.  This  was  another 
element  in  the  great  sum  of  joy  which  outweighed 
shame  and  Cross. 

This  joy  included  also  the  high  pleasure  of  holding 
His  throne,  not  by  prescriptive   right  or  hereditary 


THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  i6q 

power,  nor  by  a  majestic  and  irresistible  investiture, 
but  by  the  willing  suffrages  of  a  ransomed  world. 
In  becoming  the  Son  of  Man,  and  offering  Himself 
through  His  vicarious  sacrifice,  to  the  homage  of  a 
disaffected,  rebellious  race,  He  submitted  His  sove- 
reignty to  the  free  acceptance  of  all  the  ages,  and 
henceforth  He  holds  its  powers  by  the  acclaim  of 
those  who  were  once  in  revolt  against  the  Divine 
righteousness.  The  satisfaction  of  making  good  a 
title  resting  upon  the  gracious  moral  suasion  of  His 
personality  was  surely  second  only  to  that  of  receiving 
it  by  the  gift  and  designation  of  His  Father.  To 
reign  over  a  kingdom  without  prisons,  fetters  and 
compulsions,  a  kingdom  throughout  the  vast  areas  of 
which  the  discipline  of  pain  becomes  needless  is,  for 
the  present  at  least,  a  distinction  achieved  by  no 
human  potentate.  But  it  shall  yet  belong  to  Jesus 
Christ,  and  He  foresaw  the  golden  day  and  was  glad. 
What  a  feat  of  goodness  it  would  be,  if  some  absolute 
ruler  of  the  hour,  were  to  march  forth  from  behind 
his  gates  of  brass  and  battalions  of  massed  soldiers,  to 
abandon  his  fortresses  of  floating  steel,  and  declare 
to  the  seething  multitudes,  "  I  will  hold  my  throne 
by  the  power  of  love  or  turn  my  back  upon  it  once 
and  for  all !  I  renounce  all  things  and  go  forth  to  an 
enterprise  which  will  give  me  the  right  to  a  perpetual 
place  in  the  hearts  of  a  free  people.  Henceforth  the 
voice  of  the  poor  and  the  helpless  shall  acclaim  me, 
and  I  will  know  no  other  type  of  kingship."  This  is 
what  Jesus  does.  By  His  Cross  He  is  coming  to 
sway  the  sceptre  of  a  sovereignty  against  which,  from 
the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  shall  be  heard  no 
murmur  of  dissent.  All  obedience  is  bondage  in 
comparison  witli  this.     The  loyalty  won  by  the  Cross 


170  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

shall  be  freer  than  the  freest  worship  of  the  angel's 
heaven.  To  exercise  such  a  sublime  and  unrivalled 
rule  was  another  element  in  the  prospect  that  inspired 
Him. 

This  joy,  however,  did  not  extinguish  the  dire  dis- 
tress inseparable  from  His  redeeming  death.  That 
no  such  immunity  could  be  set  up  was  ensured  by  the 
character  of  the  Incarnation  itself  In  that  event  of 
impenetrable  mystery,  the  Divine  attributes  became 
subject  to  such  limitations,  that  they  could  not  make 
either  mind  or  body  proof  against  the  onslaughts  of 
pain.  The  Son  of  God  had  "  emptied  Himself,"  and 
the  joy  from  whose  head  -  springs,  the  energising 
forces  of  His  mission  were  fed,  flowed  through 
the  meagre  and  finite  channels  of  a  holy  human 
nature.  If  Jesus  had  retained,  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh,  the  unlimited  knowledge  and  the  unclouded 
consciousness  of  the  Godhead,  He  could  not  have 
suffered,  for  all  His  hopes  would  have  had  the  pro- 
perties of  present  attainment  and  possession.  His 
vivid  and  complete  perception  of  all  that  lay  wrapped 
in  the  future  ages,  would  have  acted  as  an  ancxsthetic 
to  present  distress,  cutting  off  entirely  the  pains  of 
the  passing  moment.  His  nature  became  just  as 
much  subject  to  time-limits  as  our  own,  and,  whilst 
the  far-off  future  of  roseate  hue  did  not  pass  into 
complete  eclipse,  an  environment  of  humiliation 
formed  the  big-looming  foreground  of  His  daily 
experience.  The  joy  was  set  before  Him  by  an  un- 
alterable covenant,  but  we  must  not  so  exaggerate 
His  human  sense  of  that  joy,  as  to  bring  back  the  old 
Gnostic  heresy,  which  made  the  Lord's  flesh  and  its 
tribulations  an  impassive  mirage  reflected  into  the 
senses  of  the  beholders.     When  He  "  emptied  Him- 


THE  redp:mptive  compensation        171 

self,"  He  was  debarred  by  that  act  of  depotentiation 
from  tasting  at  once  of  the  plenary  fruitions  of  His 
earthly  work.  The  Cross  was  not  changed  into  a 
painless,  phantom  cross  by  the  counteracting  joy. 
The  suffering  and  the  shame  were  intensely  real,  real 
beyond  that  of  all  other  crosses,  because  the  flesh,  in 
which  the  guileless  victim  was  put  to  death,  was  sen- 
sitive beyond  all  human  flesh.  Divine  love  could  not 
enshrine  itself  in  a  human  body,  without  making  that 
body  feel  with  a  quivering  keenness,  to  which  men 
had  hitherto  been  strangers.  The  Cross  crushed  and 
the  shame  scorched  as  Cross  and  shame  had  not  here- 
tofore been  wont,  for  the  life  on  which  they  wrought 
was  incomparably  fine  and  exquisite. 

And  the  converse  of  this  fact  must  receive  equal 
emphasis.  As  the  essential  pain  of  the  Cross  was 
not  taken  away  by  the  looked-for  joy,  neither  was 
the  joy  quite  quenched  by  the  Cross.  In  no  single 
bend,  or  deep  descent,  of  the  course  he  had  to  run, 
did  Jesus  lose  sight  of  the  prize  of  His  great  vocation. 
Some  gleam  of  the  golden  hereafter  alighted  upon 
every  cloud  of  His  life,  even  upon  the  dense  darkness 
which  folded  itself  around  the  Cross. 

But  how  was  this  joy  sustained  amidst  the  limita- 
tions of  His  earthly  life  ?  What  guarantees  assured  it  ? 
What  secret  influences  could  make  it,  in  the  crisis  of 
a  tragic  agony,  such  a  well-grounded  certainty  as 
outweighed  the  cruel  reality  of  the  Cross?  His  faith 
in  the  firm  covenant  of  which  He  was  the  appointed 
Mediator,  the  insight  of  a  Son,  which  penetrated  far 
beyond  that  of  the  prophet  into  the  counsels  of  the 
Father,  His  constant  converse  with  One  who  showed 
to  Him  all  things  that  Himself  did,  and  would  yet  give 
all  things  into  His  hands.     If  we  may  speak  of  His 


172  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

superhuman  illumination,  after  the  manner  of  men, 
His  prophetic  office  was  necessary,  not  only  for  the 
instruction  of  His  people,  but  as  the  basis  of  personal 
fortitude  in  the  hour  of  His  Passion.  He  so  restrained 
and  subdued  the  sensibilities  of  the  flesh,  that  the 
perceptions  of  the  spirit  were  luminous  with  a 
penetrating  power,  no  inwalling  night  could  obstruct. 
The  prophetic  merged  into  the  priestly  work  and  up- 
held its  energies.  He  could  not  present  His  life,  a 
willing  sacrifice  to  the  Father  for  an  offending  world, 
apart  from  His  unfaltering  insight  into  the  blessed 
issues  of  this  act  of  love.  The  Seer  must  have  his 
.millennial  visions  in  order  that  the  self-oblation  of  the 
intercessor  may  be  free  and  unmurmuring.  If  an 
inadequately  assured  joy  had  been  the  motive 
directing  His  steps  to  Jerusalem,  across  the  Kidron 
to  the  garden,  outside  the  gate  to  the  place  of  His 
uplifting  from  the  earth,  the  sacrifice  would  have 
been  grudging,  irresolute,  void  of  redemptive  virtue. 
The  present,  with  its  black,  pitiless  Fate,  might  seem 
to  leave  little  space  for  brighter  backgrounds,  but, 
however  deep  the  profound  into  which  God's  waves 
and  billows  swept  Him,  He  never  quite  lost  sight  of 
the  joy  that  was  His  pole-star.  The  Cross,  when  it 
stood  before  His  gentle  eyes,  inexorable  as  iron  and 
quite  as  cruel,  never  brought  total  eclipse  upon  the 
crown  that  shone  through  the  darkness  beyond.  He 
could  discern  its  golden  outlines  in  the  midnight. 
The  doubt  we  sometimes  feel  about  the  Divine 
authority  for  this  sacrifice,  which  is  the  heart  of  the 
Gospel,  and  its  ethical  fitness,  is  a  doubt  we  feel  about 
the  reality  of  the  recompense,  or  at  least  should  have 
felt  if  placed  at  our  Lord's  standpoint.  Our  diffi- 
culty arises  from  the  fact  that  we  lack  the  Lord's  own 


THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  173 

faith.  His  confidence  in  the  issue,  which  was  more 
than  the  insight  of  a  prophet,  guarded  Him  against 
the  temptation  to  shirk  the  Cross,  which  would  have 
mastered  one  less  Divine.  The  joy  set  before  Him, 
by  a  revelation  from  the  Father  of  lights,  clearer  and 
more  abiding  than  the  day,  enabled  Him  to  endure 
the  unknown  burdens  of  a  sacrificial  death  and  to 
despise  the  shame. 

The  motive  of  our  Lord's  self-dedication  to  the 
Cross,  as  stated  by  the  writer  of  this  epistle,  is  a  key 
to  some  of  the  ethical  difficulties  which  invest  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  The  joy  upon 
which  He  had  fixed  His  hope  justified  His  choice  in 
yielding  Himself  up  as  a  propitiation  for  sin.  That 
Jesus  should  bear  the  Divine  wrath  for  men,  and 
taste  death  in  their  stead,  is  an  idea  which  has  excited 
keen  resentment,  especially  within  recent  years. 
Some  interpreters  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures 
have  set  themselves  to  expunge  from  its  language 
the  notion  that  Jesus  appeased  the  wrath  of  a  holy 
God,  and  have  given  us,  what  is  known  as  a  sub- 
jective theory  of  the  Atonement.  But  the  attempt 
has  not  been  a  success  in  exegesis,  for  the  language  of 
the  apostles  does  not  always  lend  itself  to  this  mode 
of  treating  the  subject. 

That  temper  of  humanitarianism,  which  in  spite  of 
many  drawbacks  is  slowly  taking  possession  of  the 
modern  world,  seems  inconsonant  with  the  old  in- 
terpretation of  Christ's  death.  But  this  admirable 
spirit  may  sometimes  overpress  its  ideals,  and  assert 
them  under  conditions  where  they  are  irrelevant.  It 
is  assumed  that  in  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  the 
Cross  we  have  a  lurid  reflection  of  repulsive  features 
in  the  propitiatory  rites  of  savages,  combined  with  a 


174  THE   REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

survival  of  fetich-conceptions  of  the  gods.  The  ethic 
of  our  recent  history  as  an  empire  is  against  every- 
thing that  could  give  countenance  to  these  crude 
primitive  beliefs.  Whilst  seeking  to  make  our  flag  a 
symbol  and  pledge  of  toleration  ev^erywhere,  we  have 
set  ourselves  to  stop  the  self-immolation  of  the 
fakir,  the  burning  of  widows,  and  every  form  of 
human  sacrifice.  Our  finer  instincts  tell  us  we 
are  right  in  this.  But  on  the  other  hand  there 
are  forms  of  self-sacrifice  which  we  tolerate  and 
even  praise  as  Divinely  beautiful.  We  applaud  to 
the  echo  the  man  who  rushes  on  to  his  death  so  that 
he  may  save  women  and  little  children.  No  honour 
is  good  enough  for  the  doctor  who  sucks  in  diphtheric 
poison  in  his  ministry  to  a  choking  and  half-dead 
child.  The  investigator  who,  to  acquire  a  knowledge 
that  will  relieve  the  torment  and  lengthen  the  days  of 
thousands,  inoculates  himself  with  a  deadly  disease, 
earns  a  martyr's  crown  and  not  the  disdain  we  feel 
for  the  selfish  suicide. 

Perhaps  we  have  not  defined  to  ourselves  the  line 
of  distinction  which  runs  between  these  two  classes 
of  action.  The  victim  of  fierce  superstition  is  often 
hounded  to  death  by  family  clamour,  or  driven  to 
self-torture  by  ignorant  and  fantastic  pride,  but  the 
hero  of  science  or  of  humanity  who  devotes  himself 
to  death  is  both  intelligent  and  free.  We  rightly 
prohibit  the  fruitless  pain  which  results  from  here- 
ditary ignorance,  whilst  Vv'e  concede  liberty  to  the 
pioneer  in  medical  discovery  because  he  can  gauge 
by  his  independent  and  instructed  judgment  the 
gain  that  will  come  to  a  community  when  in  grand 
self-devotion  he  forgets  the  risks  of  death.  The 
sacrificial  price,  needful  for  his  work,  is  paid  once  for 


THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  175 

all,  and  requires  no  useless  and  harrowing  reitera- 
tions. In  the  praise  and  affection  of  posterity,  as  he 
views  things,  he  will  have  his  reward.  It  is  needless 
to  show  how  the  futile  savage  immolations,  we  con- 
demn and  repress,  have  little  or  nothing  in  common 
with  the  redeeming  death  delineated  in  the  pages  of 
the  evangelists  ;  whilst  the  self-devotion  we  approve 
and  extol  in  modern  life  fits  in  with  all  the  analogies 
of  our  Lord's  sacrificial  work.  He  might  have 
turned  aside  from  Mis  last  journey  to  Jerusalem,  and 
was  often  urged  to  avoid  the  risks  it  involved,  but  of 
His  own  free  love  He  went  to  the  cross.  The  dis- 
ciples deprecated  the  sad  ending  of  which  He  had 
given  them  intimations,  and  when  Peter  exclaimed^ 
"  Be  it  far  from  Thee,  Lord,"  he  was  spokesman 
of  the  rest.  If  we  doubt  the  Divine  Sonship  of 
Jesus,  we  must  at  least  allow  that  His  ethical  know- 
ledge was  more  penetrating  than  ours,  and  that  He 
judged  with  amazing  accuracy  many  of  the  benefits 
which  were  to  ensue  from  His  death.  He  felt 
Himself  sure  of  compensations,  and  the  sacrifice  was 
once  for  all,  admitting  of  no  specious  repetitions. 

A  brilliant  preacher  of  the  last  century,  whose 
sermons  are  still  widely  read,  takes  Caiaphas,  who 
held  it  expedient  that  a  guiltless  life  should  be 
wantonly  immolated  for  the  nation,  as  the  type 
of  all  believers  in  a  substitutionary  atonement. 
He  further  asserts  that  "  The  conception  of  this 
doctrine  which  makes  Christ  bear  the  wrath  of  God 
for  the  sin  of  the  race  is  borrowed  from  the  most 
atrocious  and  revolting  Pagan  superstition.  It  repre- 
sents God  in  terms  which  better  describe  the  un- 
governed  rage  of  Saul  missing  his  stroke  at  David, 
who  has  offended,  and   in  disappointed  fury  hurling 


176  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

his  javelin  at  his  own  son  Jonathan."  That  is  a 
fearful  charge  to  bring  against  even  rash  exaggera- 
tions of  this  sacred  subject.  But  the  parallel,  in  this 
scathing  indictment,  fails  at  many  points.  The  dis- 
pleasure of  a  holy  God  at  sin  is  widely  different  from 
a  fit  of  irresponsible  madness.  David  was  not  a 
substitute  who  had  offered  to  bear  the  offences  of  his 
friend,  but  a  man  obedient  to  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  who  made  good  his  escape  as  fast  as 
possible.  And  the  young  harper  did  not  dream  of 
satisfactions  which  would  fill  his  immortal  years,  if 
he  offered  himself  as  a  victim  in  place  of  his  com- 
.rade.  A  sure  and  sufficient  joy  was  set  before  our 
Lord,  when  He  steadfastly  faced  the  Cross  and 
shame. 

To  all  that  has  been  urged  against  the  evangel 
of  a  vicarious  Cross  we  may  find  an  answer  if  we 
apply  the  principle  at  the  root  of  the  text.  The 
blessings  of  His  coming  reign  outweighed  the  curse 
laid  upon  Jesus  when  He  hung  upon  the  tree.  We 
allow  that  God's  law  for  the  universe,  from  Gabriel 
down  through  man,  and  right  on  to  the  meanest 
monad,  is  a  law  of  joy.  The  largest  possible  happi- 
ness for  the  largest  possible  numbers  is  a  safe 
principle,  if  we  first  settle  our  definition  of  happiness 
and  take  note  of  the  conditions  under  which  it  may 
be  obtained.  The  test  applied  by  a  blind  sensualist, 
indifferent  to  all  the  pleasures  which  arise  within  the 
higher  consciousness,  would  make  the  world  into  a 
sink  of  drunkenness  and  putridity.  The  test  applied 
by  a  discerning  moralist  would  give  us  a  world  full  of 
chastened  blessedness,  with  Calvary  as  the  central 
shrine  of  its  altruisms.  The  secular  philosopher  so 
often  forgets,  what  Jesus  emphasised  again  and  again, 


THE   REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  177 


that  the  greatest  happiness  may  sometimes  be 
reached  by  a  cross  which  may  be  either  a  stumbling 
or  a  stepping-stone.  Dark  rivers  svvirhng  at  our 
feet  must  sometimes  be  crossed  before  the  Delectable 
Mountains,  which  glow  in  unearthly  loveliness,  can  be 
reached. 

Divest  the  Atonement  of  its  penal  aspects,  deny 
to  Jesus  the  right  of  entering  into  the  guilt  of  the  race, 
lay  it  down  as  an  immutable  law  that  He  cannot  be 
allowed  to  bear  the  curse  for  His  brethren,  and  He 
is  barred  out  thereby  from  all  the  raptures  of  His 
spiritual  triumph.  The  joy  upon  which  He  had  fixed 
His  heart  was  proportioned  to  the  degree  in  which  He 
could  become  man's  substitute.  It  was  one  of  the 
rights  of  His  free  personality  to  take  the  place  of  the 
condemned  race,  if  He  could  do  so  without  bringing 
the  laws  of  individual  responsibility  amongst  men 
into  chaos  and  contempt.  The  principle  is  one  and 
the  same  with  that  of  thrift,  although  the  degree  of 
its  application  may  differ  enormously.  If  I  am  free 
to  deny  myself  a  pleasure  in  youth,  so  that  I  may 
receive  it  with  compound  interest  in  manhood  or  old 
age,  Jesus  was  surely  free  to  carry  a  cross  and  suffer 
upon  it,  so  that  He  might  possess  Himself  of  endless 
years  of  victory.  He  looked  for  a  matchless  and 
eternal  harvest  from  the  seed  He  went  forth  to  sow  in 
tears  and  blood.  His  hope  was  fixed  upon  overflow- 
ing compensations.  Such  a  morning  was  destined  to 
succeed  His  night  of  tears  as  neither  earth  nor 
heaven  had  known  before. 

Much  of  our  difficulty  disappears  when  we  re- 
member the  standpoint  of  infinite  illumination,  from 
which  our  Lord  contemplated  the  Cross  and  the 
great   things  which    lay  beyond    it.      We  think  the 

13 


178  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

joy  set  before  Him  an  insufficient  consideration, 
because  we  look  at  it  through  the  clouded,  minifying 
atmosphere  of  our  suspicious  selfishness.  When  we 
implicitly  receive  Him  as  our  prophet,  and  tread 
the  steps  of  a  firmer  faith,  we  shall  be  brought  to 
see  that  the  abounding  joy  of  the  far-off  years 
justified  His  sacrifice,  and  every  sacrifice  however 
stringent  and  sweeping  that  we  ourselves  may  be 
brought  to  make  under  the  spell  of  His  Cross. 
We  need  have  no  fear  of  abasing  Christ,  by  con- 
templating His  forlornness  as  a  victim  whose  judg- 
ment had  been  taken  away,  if  we  remember  the 
exceeding  joy,  sufficiently  assured,  which  was  the 
motive  of  the  Cross.  He  was  in  harmony  with 
the  Father's  highest  law  for  Himself  when  He  was 
in  the  act  of  being  bruised  and  put  to  grief.  He 
is  not  the  pale  ascetic  of  endless  ages  crowned 
with  thorns  which  never  lose  their  power  to  stab. 
Let  this  principle  be  a  clue,  leading  us  back  to  the 
Cross,  from  which  we  have  been  turned  aside  by 
the  stumbling-blocks  some  modern  thinkers  have 
recklessly  placed  about  it. 

The  faith  of  sincere  Christians  has  in  some 
cases  been  weakened,  if  not  vitiated,  by  the 
controversies  which  have  been  waged  upon  this 
ground  of  incomparable  sacredness.  We  are  not 
fully  persuaded  in  our  own  minds,  and  strains  of 
diffidence  and  uncertainty  enter  into  our  expe- 
rience. Perhaps  we  have  not  been  convinced  by 
the  arguments  of  those  who  would  revolutionise 
the  fundamentals,  and  take  us  away  from  our 
first  evangelical  standing-ground  ;  but  we  are  not 
infallible,  and  the  thought  that  we  may  be  wrong 
troubles    us     more     frequently    than     in     the    past. 


THE   REDEMPTIVE  COMPENSATION  179 


Perhaps  we  have  tried  to  exercise  a  vague  trust  in 
the  mediation  of  Jesus,  which  takes  no  account  of 
specific  theories  of  His  death,  to  cling  to  the  Cross 
and  yet  maintain  an  attitude  of  doctrinal  neutrality  ; 
to  confess  the  central  significance  of  the  Cross  in 
apostohc  schemes  of  theology,  and  yet  to  keep  an 
open  mind  on  the  subject.  But  this  undefined  trust 
has  not  brought  the  inward  peace  which  was  our 
heritage  in  the  unsophisticated  days  when  we  took 
Christ  as  the  One  who  died  for  us,  and  lifted  up  our 
burden  on  the  Cross.  We  cannot  get  back  the  old 
rest  whilst  we  look  upon  a  most  vital  aspect  of 
Christ's  death  as  debateable.  If  we  are  repelled 
by  the  idea  that  another  bore  our  penalty,  and  are 
too  proud  to  accept  such  help,  let  us  remember 
the  mystic  compensations  whereby  the  riddle  of 
vicarious  pain  is  solv^ed. 

In  the  forests  of  Cambodia  are  to  be  found  the 
remains  of  massive  stone  temples  and  palaces,  which 
have  been  long  forsaken  by  the  race  which  built 
them,  and  are  now  overgrown.  The  reason  why 
these  elaborate  and  highly  finished  structures  were 
abandoned  is  a  puzzle  not  easy  to  solve.  The 
original  builders  were  not  dispossessed  by  a  con- 
quering race,  for  no  record  of  any  such  invasion 
exists,  and  a  conquering  race  would  have  made  some 
use  of  its  annexations.  The  people  who  reared  these 
amazing  edifices,  with  a  skill  and  a  perfection  worthy 
of  the  highest  civilisations,  are  now  jungle-dwellers 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  colossal  ruins.  The  buildings 
were  not  overthrown  by  earthquake,  for  the  walls 
are  still  true,  every  stone  is  in  its  position,  and  the 
foundations  have  not  been  disturbed  or  displaced. 
A  writer  on  Asiatic  subjects  has  recently  suggested 


i8o  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

that  they  were  forsaken  under  the  influence  of  super- 
stition. A  series  of  sh'ght  earthquake  shocks,  not 
sufficiently  violent  to  work  desolation,  got  upon  the 
nerves  of  the  citizens,  and  called  forth  their  dread 
of  the  displeasure  of  the  gods.  In  a  temper  of  panic 
they  forsook  these  colossal  stone-built  cities  and 
became  degenerate  squatters  in  the  surrounding 
forests.  Similar  changes  tending  to  degeneration 
go  on  in  the  theological  world.  Men's  views  and 
feelings  about  the  Atonement  have  been  exposed 
to  a  long  series  of  recurring  shocks,  by  no  means 
revolutionary  in  the  force  of  their  logic,  and  they 
have  begun  to  feel  more  or  less  uncomfortable  in 
the  mighty  and  massive  strongholds  of  faith,  where 
their  forefathers  found  rest  and  assured  salvation. 
Is  the  vicarious  principle  right  ?  Ought  the  burden 
of  a  guilty  race  to  be  put  upon  One  who  is  without 
ofl'ence,  so  that  He  can  make  atonement  for  trans- 
gression ?  Does  not  the  doctrine  of  propitiation 
present  the  character  of  God  in  a  mistaken  light, 
and  make  the  burden-bearing  of  Jesus  a  cruel 
enslavement  and  an  unlovely  device  ?  Does  not 
the  forgiveness  of  sin  through  the  Cross  involve  a 
breach  in  the  continuity  of  the  great  law  of  retri- 
bution ?  If  God  cannot  forgive  as  a  pure  act  of 
Fatherhood,  and  without  a  sin-offering,  is  not  His 
character  austere  and  His  sovereignty  limited  ?  Our 
faith  is  not  quite  overthrown,  and  the  logic  of  the 
evangelical  doctrine  is  as  massive  as  ever.  But  we 
have  felt  the  disturbing  and  recurrent  shocks.  We 
have  little  mind  for  the  old  refuges,  and  are  in  peril  of 
becoming  religious  degenerates,  unworthy  of  the  past. 
We  are  the  victims  of  subtle,  disconcerting  super- 
stitions of   the   intellect  and  theological   pin-pricks, 


THE   REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION  i8i 


Whilst  grappling  with  all  honest  problems,  as  best  we 
may,  let  us  ignore  these  shocks,  which  in  the  long 
run  may  count  for  trifles,  and  let  us  continue  to 
rest  upon  the  one  foundation,  Jesus  Christ. 

The  joy  for  which  Jesus  looked,  as  He  hung  in 
shame  and  distress  upon  the  tree,  should  prove  a 
master-argument  for  our  speedy  acceptance  of  His 
salvation.  Our  personal  reconciliation  to  God  is 
charged  with  such  high  issues  and  meanings  that 
it  may  minister,  in  some  appreciable  degree,  to  the 
Saviour's  satisfaction.  What  cause,  that  can  justify 
itself  to  the  reason  and  the  conscience,  do  you  allege 
for  barring  out,  even  for  an  hour,  the  Saviour's  claim  ? 
Whilst  you  make  light  of  such  sacred  rights,  can  you 
look  at  the  Man  of  Griefs,  and  feel  no  sense  of  self- 
condemnation  ?  Tenacious  as  you  are  of  all  that 
has  been  won  by  patient  and  honest  toil,  think  of 
the  heritage  Jesus  has  earned  for  Himself  by  His 
strange  suffering  and  shame.  That  He  should  be 
able  to  rejoice  over  you  is  surely  His  due,  and  are 
you  not  impugning  His  title  whilst  you  continue 
in  a  proud  indecision,  which  defers,  at  least  for  a 
season,  the  full  fruitage  of  that  death?  Ought  the 
sweat  and  struggle  of  your  daily  tasks  to  find  a 
recompense  in  the  plenty  of  your  table  and  the 
restfulness  of  your  home?  and  has  the  sweat  of 
Gethsemane  earned  no  right  of  gladness  and  festive 
communion  for  your  knocking  Lord  ?  Have  the 
hands  which  toil  at  an  earthly  task,  and  the  feet 
which  move  through  an  appointed  round  of  service, 
a  meed  of  recompense,  admitted  by  the  maxims  of 
every  land  ?  and  are  the  pierced  hands  and  feet 
to  be  deprived  of  the  tribute  for  which  they  plead? 
The  prize  to  which  He  looked  as  He  moved  along  a 


i82  THE    REDEMPTIVE   COMPENSATION 

pathway  stained  with  His  own  fast-falhng  blood,  is 
your  salvation,  now  and  through  all  ages.  What 
answer  do  you  give  back  to  the  Cross  and 
shame  endured  with  such  steadfast,  pathetic  unsel- 
fishness? His  Spirit  attends  to  receive  your 
submission. 

Oh  that  men  would  put  off  their  dulness  and 
hear  His  breath  in  the  evangel  which  is  still 
preached  !  The  sweetness  of  His  voice  surges 
through  the  message,  the  pathos  of  His  unforgotten 
Passion,  the  mandate  of  His  blood-bought  sove- 
reignty. Would  that  we  could  rid  ourselves  of  the 
worldly  tempers  which  obstruct  our  finer  discern- 
ments !  Forget  the  human  note  in  the  voice  which 
speaks  and  listen  for  the  Divine  accents  which 
reinforce  its  feebleness,  the  voice  from  the  cross 
which,  after  so  many  centuries,  still  vibrates,  where- 
ever  the  honest  Gospel  is  preached  ;  the  voice  which 
gathers  up  pathos,  entreaty,  kingly  command  into 
an  appeal  that  ought  to  hush  into  speechless  and 
reverent  heedfulness:  "Admit  the  rights  born  in 
the  shame  and  bitter  distress  of  the  cross ;  tender 
those  inward  satisfactions  for  which  My  pained 
spirit  has  long  been  thirsting." 

What  an  encouragement  to  faith  this  subject 
offers !  The  salvation  of  the  souls  He  ransomed 
was  no  task  imposed  upon  Jesus  by  a  remorseless 
destiny,  but  the  prize  towards  which  He  lifted  His 
wistful  gaze.  If  on  the  way  to  the  cross  Jesus 
strengthened  Himself  by  picturing  the  coming  release 
of  His  people,  and  went  to  His  awful  task  refreshed 
by  the  far-off  vision,  can  you  not  trust  Him  to 
complete  His  work  in  your  soul  ?  His  joy  is  not 
fulfilled  in  the  common  redemption,  of  which  He  laid 


THE    RP:DEMPTIVE   compensation  183 

the  foundations  as  He  hung  upon  the  cross.  It  is 
continued  through  all  the  processes  of  personal  salva- 
tion, processes  which  derive  their  informing  virtues 
from  His  death.  Indeed,  it  is  in  your  experience  of 
salvation  that  He  attains  one  of  the  many  goals  to 
which  His  eye  was  turned.  Through  the  shadows 
of  the  cross  He  saw  the  joy  in  a  dim  figure  of 
prophecy  ;  but  when  He  applies  His  death  to  take 
away  a  penitent's  condemnation  He  receives  the 
substance  of  a  long  looked-for  recompense.  Can 
He  deny  Himself?  If  so,  He  may  cast  you  forth 
from  His  presence  and  decline  to  help  you,  scorning 
your  penitence  for  its  lack  of  depth,  poignancy, 
tears.  It  is  impossible  that  He  should  think  lightly 
of  a  joy  for  which  He  endured  the  Cross,  and  that 
joy  is  linked  with  your  redemption.  Trust  Him.  It 
fills  His  great  nature  with  Divine  contentment  to 
save  a  soul,  and  to  save  it  now,  for  that  was  why 
He  bore  the  Cross.  Your  faith  is  a  part  of  His 
earthly  coronation.  He  consents  to  receive  at 
your  unworthy  hands  one  of  the  gifts  for  which  He 
became  incarnate  and  bore  Cross  and  shame. 


X 

THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 

"And  one  said  unto  Him,  Lord,  are  there  few  that  be 
saved  ?  And  He  said  unto  them,  Strive  to  enter  in  at  the 
narrow  door  :  for  many,  I  say  unto  you,  shall  seek  to  enter 
in,  and  shall  not  be  able." — Luke  xiii.  23,  24. 

This  question  was  asked  towards  the  close  of 
our  Lord's  ministry,  when  He  was  making  His 
way  by  slow  and  toilsome  stages  to  Jerusalem,  the 
city  where  His  career  as  a  teacher  was  to  end 
in  ignominy  and  apparent  disaster.  We  can  only 
conjecture  the  motive  prompting  the  inquiry,  from 
the  circumstances  in  which  the  Master  found  Him- 
self, and  the  drift  of  the  answer  He  thought  fit 
to  give. 

Perhaps  some  echo  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
with  its  admonitory  allusion  to  "the  strait  gate" 
and  "  the  few "  who  found  it,  may  have  been  lin- 
gering in  the  mind  of  the  man  who  introduced  this 
pregnant  subject.  If  this  was  so,  his  meaning  may 
be,  "  Are  the  precepts  of  the  new  kingdom  as  rigid 
and    unsparing   as    popular    rumour   asserts  ?     The 

truth  must  surely  bend  itself  somewhat  to  the  weak- 

1S4 


THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL  i8q 


D 


ness  of  the  multitudes,  or  only  a  limited  number  of 
the  chosen  nation  will  reach  salvation." 

It  is  conceivable  also  that  the  declining  popularity 
of  the  Prophet,  and  the  melting  away  of  His  fol- 
lowers under  the  stress  of  persecution,  may  have 
given  painful  relevancy  to  the  inquiry.  The  day 
when  excited  multitudes  greeted  Him  with  acclaim 
was  past  never  to  return,  except  for  the  brief 
pathetic  hour  of  His  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem. 
This  man  who  sought  to  lift  the  veil  from  the 
mysteries  of  the  judgment  may  have  implied, 
"  Surely  these  few  followers  do  not  represent  the 
entire  fruit  of  a  three-years'  ministry,  reinforced  by 
the  missions  of  apostles  and  evangelists.  How  the 
movement,  in  spite  of  its  early  promises  and  its 
many  miracles,  has    collapsed  into  a   forlorn  hope." 

Some  strain  of  pride  and  self-sufficiency  may 
have  entered  into  the  question,  "  Are  we  a  select 
and  steadfast  few,  '  the  saved  remnant '  spoken  of 
aforetime  by  the  prophets?  Is  it  our  portion  to  be 
the  exclusive  recipients  of  Thy  favour  and  kingly 
good-will  ?  " 

Or  the  man,  who  voiced  also  the  curiosity 
of  others,  may  have  been  musing  upon  the  destiny 
of  the  human  race  and  asking  in  the  interests 
of  populations,  larger  than  those  with  which  his  own 
citizenship  was  counted.  ''  What  must  be  said  about 
Greek,  Roman,  and  Scythian,  the  man  of  mixed 
Jewish  and  Gentile  parentage,  the  far-off  colonies, 
the  teeming  souls  of  bygone  generations,  and  the 
generations  of  the  unknown  future  ? "  '*  Are  there 
few  that  be  saved  ?  " 

Our  Lord  gives  only  obscure  hints  of  the  answer 
to  this  engrossing  problem.     He   tries    to    turn    the 


i86  THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 

man's  thoughts,  in  common  with  that  of  the  multi- 
tude, from  the  speculative  to  the  practical,  from  the 
general  to  the  particular,  from  things  remote  and 
undefined  to  the  duty  of  the  passing  hour.  The 
reply  to  such  a  question  cannot  be  the  same  for 
every  decade  and  for  every  century.  At  the  moment 
perhaps  few  are  saved  ;  in  the  after-times  assuredly 
many,  or  the  prophets  were  misled  and  dreamed  vain 
dreams.  From  the  east  and  the  west,  the  north  and 
the  south,  multitudes  shall  stream  into  the  kingdom. 
What  standard  of  comparison  is  set  up  within  the 
mind  ?  What  geographical  area  does  the  question 
cover?  How  long  will  the  world  go  on?  Every 
period  must  have  separate  consideration,  just  as 
every  separate  member  of  the  race  must  receive 
a  reward  or  a  punishment  congruous  to  the  require- 
ments of  Divine  equity.  Whatever  else  may  be 
hidden,  the  hour  has  its  clear  duty,  as  well  as  its 
impending  peril.  Take  heed  lest  a  temper  of  vagrant 
curiosity  occupy  the  soul,  when  the  hour  for  action 
is  striking  and  is  already  on  the  wing  for  a  flight 
from  which  there  is  no  return.  Strive  and  strive 
now,  for  no  opportunity  is  termless,  and  too  many, 
alas !  will  fail  of  salvation. 

The  old  question  is  still  asked,  and  sometimes  re- 
ligious teachers  presume  to  babble  forecasts  of  effusive 
sweetness  where  the  Master  maintained  an  admoni- 
tory reserve.  Is  the  majority  with  or  against  Jesus 
Christ?  Is  the  flowing  tide  on  the  side  of  the 
Churches  ?  Do  those  who,  in  the  end  of  their  days, 
soar  into  eternal  light,  outnumber  those  who  sink  into 
darkness  ?  "  Lord  are  there  few  that  be  saved  ?"  Such 
questions  do  not  admit  of  answers  free  from  am- 
biguity, and  proof  against  disastrous  misapplication. 


thp:  strp:nuous  gospel  187 


"  Few  "  and  "  many  "  are  relative  terms.  The  minority 
of  one  generation  often  becomes  the  majority  of  the 
following  generation.  This  question  cannot  have 
the  same  answer  in  a  society  dominated  by  the 
maxims  of  the  "smart  set,"  and  in  a  society  leavened 
by  the  spirit  of  a  Welsh  Revival.  In  ages  of  de- 
cadence and  degeneration  the  verdict  may  be 
depressing,  and  yet  after-generations  of  religious 
faith  and  zeal  may  redress  the  balance.  We  are 
appalled  when  we  think  of  the  moral  and  social 
wreckage  in  nominally  Christian  lands  ;  and  to  the 
very  end  of  life  vast  numbers  of  the  degraded  show 
no  sign  of  improvement.  And  yet  we  like  to  dream 
that  before  the  human  race  lie  long  ages  of  history, 
in  which  good  shall  be  victorious— ages  far  out- 
numbering the  bygone  ages  of  darkness.  Men  will 
not  always  be  fools.  The  earth  may  be  covered  for 
thousands  of  years  with  pure,  devout,  regenerated 
races,  ten  times  as  populous  as  those  of  the  Far 
East:  and  that  would  fix  the  ultimate  ratio.  The 
prophecies  warrant  such  dreams.  Leaving  entirely 
out  of  view  the  question  of  a  probation  after  death, 
the  earth  itself  may  have  before  it  vistas  of  illimit- 
able history,  which  shall  turn  the  mass  of  past 
moral  failures  into  nothingness,  when  they  are 
considered  side  by  side  with  the  whole.  And  yet, 
in  spite  of  such  prospects,  the  ignorant  and  careless 
of  some  specific  period  may  be  in  a  tremendous 
majority  in  comparison  with  their  devout  contem- 
poraries ;  and  the  kind  of  answer  the  inquirer  wished 
for  might  strangely  mislead. 

Taking  human  nature  as  it  is,  any  answer  given 
to  the  question  easily  passes  into  a  grave  temptation. 
Suppose  the  answer   were   "  Alas !    but    few  ;  "  how 


THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL 


would  it  tiave  influenced  those  who  heard  it  ?  One 
morbidly  sensible  to  the  social  atmosphere  in  which 
he  moved,  and  predisposed,  like  Thomas,  to  gloomy 
views,  might  have  been  tempted  to  egotism  and  led 
to  exaggerate  the  worth  of  his  service  to  the  cause 
of  Christ — "  I  at  least  shall  be  numbered  with  the 
elect  remnant,  small  though  it  be  in  number."  An 
impious,  worldly-minded  man  might  have  said,  "  I 
will  take  my  chance  with  the  overwhelming  multi- 
tude, for  the  many  cannot  be  finally  lost,  or  God 
would  have  made  man  in  vain.  He  surely  cannot 
consume  all  the  inhabitants  of  a  world,  any  more 
than  a  king  can  imprison  or  execute  the  entire  race 
over  which  he  rules."  And,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
the  word  had  been  spoken,  "  The  lost  shall  be  but 
a  handful  and  preponderating  multitudes  shall  be 
saved,"  the  worldly  man  would  have  ceased  to 
concern  himself  with  the  problems  of  the  after-life, 
and  would  have  presumptuously  trusted  to  the 
prospect  of  being  swept  into  the  kingdom  with  the 
masses  of  mankind.  He  would  have  looked  to  be 
saved  in  spite  of  himself.  This  is  the  common 
tendency  of  preaching  the  larger  hope,  as  though  it 
dogmatically  involved  the  complete  restoration  of 
an  undivided  race  to  God's  favour.  Such  views 
release  the  godless  multitudes  from  a  wholesome  fear 
of  the  wrath  to  come,  producing  a  condition  of 
carelessness  much  more  difficult  to  remove  than  that 
stupor  begotten  by  glaring  vices,  with  which  the 
revivalists  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  to  contend. 
The  people  outside  the  Churches,  and  two-thirds 
of  the  people  within  the  Churches,  who  a  generation 
ago  were  exercised  with  deep  religious  anxieties, 
expect  to  be  carried  by  resistless  tides  into  the  sunny 


THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL  189 

shelters  of  the  eternal  kingdom.  The  question  which 
Jesus  refused  to  answer,  the  preacher  of  the  hour 
often  answers  with  a  strange  temerity,  and  the  effect 
upon  the  community  is  disastrous.  The  man  in  the 
street  has  not  quite  rid  himself  of  the  fear  of  ghosts, 
but  he  has  lost  all  dread  of  a  holy  and  righteous 
God,  "  who  is  able  to  destroy  both  body  and  soul 
in  hell." 

Behind  the  question  there  lurks  a  permanent 
tendency  to  attach  undue  importance  to  numbers, 
and  an  answer  might  have  strengthened  the  tempta- 
tion for  every  coming  age.  Then,  as  now,  men  were 
pre-disposed  to  measure  themselves  by  the  views  and 
feelings  of  their  neighbours,  and  even  to  pit  human 
opinion  against  God's  judgments.  VV'c  assume  too 
often  that  the  masses  of  our  contemporaries  cannot 
be  entirely  wrong  ;  that  if  a  new  craze  is  fluttering 
West  End  drawing-rooms  there  must  be  something 
in  it ;  that  if  a  new  investment  is  boomed  and  the 
public  are  coming  in,  big  dividends  are  at  hand  ; 
and  that  the  religious  teacher  around  whom  crowds 
hum  has  the  latest  revised  edition  of  God's  Gospel. 
Such  rude  methods  of  judging  are  essentially 
false.  If  the  human  race  were  polled  to-day  there 
would  be  a  majority  on  the  side  of  a  flat  earth, 
spurious  medicine,  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy,  irra- 
tional religions,  although  perhaps  a  century  hence 
things  may  be  entirely  changed.  The  majorities 
in  one  country  or  in  one  niche  of  the  universe,  are 
no  guide  to  the  majorities  elsewhere,  and  the  ma- 
jorities of  the  twentieth  century  may  form  no  key 
to  those  of  the  twenty-fifth  century.  A  popular 
astronomer  tells  us  that  the  mathematical  chances 
against    bodies   of   matter   being  kindled   into   light 


iQo  THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 

are  such  that  the  dark  stars  probably  outnumber  the 
stars  which  glitter  in  the  constellations  above  us. 
But  this  is  no  proof  that  darkness  should  be  accounted 
the  sovereign  principle  of  the  universe  rather  than 
light.  If  it  be  true  that  the  multitudes  of  the  first, 
or  the  fourteenth,  or  the  twentieth  century  are  in 
the  blackness  and  stupor  of  spiritual  night,  that 
is  no  reason  why  I  should  ally  myself  with  them. 
I  have  to  deal  with  God  and  the  duties  He  lays  upon 
me,  and  not  with  the  distribution  of  opinion  amongst 
various  groups  of  my  contemporaries.  From  the 
temper  and  attitude  of  the  crowd,  we  can  argue 
nothing  one  way  or  the  other,  when  the  issues  of 
spiritual  destiny  are  at  stake.  We  must  neither 
assume  that  the  few  are  saved,  and  that  it  is  our 
high  distinction  to  be  classed  with  them  ;  nor  assume 
that  the  many  are  saved,  and  that  as  things  go 
our  chances  are  good,  even  if  we  do  not  bring  our 
souls  under  the  yoke  of  Jesus,  and  incur  the  charge 
of  eccentricity  through  the  zeal  which  Jesus  accounts 
needful  for  salvation. 

The  age  still  occupies  itself  with  this  question,  to 
the  neglect  of  personal  religion.  But  the  exact  and 
exhaustive  answer  to  it  is  reserved  to  the  Judge  of 
the  assembled  nations,  and  it  is  our  wisdom  to  wait. 
If  we  deal  with  the  personal  problem  first  we  may 
come  to  find  that  we  are  taking  the  best  way  of 
answering  the  question  happily  for  the  race  at  large. 
No  man  saves  himself  without,  at  the  same  time, 
saving  some  of  those  who  are  bound  up  with  him  in 
a  common  life. 

The  address  to  the  multitude  introduced  by  this 
question  implies  that  effectual  salvation  must  begin 
in  strenuous  personal  action.     Whether  many  or  few 


THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL  191 

attain  final  blessedness  is  not  an  issue  fixed  by  a 
Divine  decree  into  which  we  may  venture  to  probe, 
but  rests  with  each  separate  seeker  after  life.  In  so 
many  words,  the  Great  Teacher  says,  "  Before  you 
concern  yourselves  with  your  neighbours'  destiny, 
and  that  of  the  race,  look  well  to  your  own  soul." 
Does  not  the  Master,  for  the  moment,  here  seem  to 
put  Himself  on  the  side  of  spiritual  selfishness  ? 
Such  counsels  run  counter  to  some  things  we  hear  at 
the  present  time,  and  half  justify  the  taunt  directed 
against  the  evangelical  faith  of  our  fathers  that  its 
one  watchword  was,  "  Give  heed  to  yourself  first  and 
make  sure  of  heaven."  But  no  broad  survey  of  the 
words  of  Jesus  can  justify  the  criticism  that  in  caring 
for  the  spiritual  state  of  the  individual  He  overlooks 
the  multitude.  To  give  heed  to  ourselves  may  be 
the  noblest  way  of  serving  our  neighbours.  By 
zealously  working  out  individual  salvation,  we  shall 
further  with  supreme  success,  the  spiritual  well-being 
of  the  community.  We  do  not  belong  to  a  race  of 
unfallen  angels  who  have  no  need  to  make  good  their 
escape  from  guilt  and  wrath,  before  they  can  minister 
to  others.  The  man  who  is  not  right  before  God, 
and  who,  nevertheless,  professes  to  concern  himself 
primarily  with  the  weal  or  woe  of  contemporary 
multitudes,  is  a  mischief-breeding  busybody,  who 
will  best  befriend  his  neighbours  by  first  looking 
to  his  own  spiritual  state.  To  send  a  consumptive 
nurse  to  minister  to  consumptives  would  be  a  hollow 
and  extravagant  affectation  of  altruism.  Her  highest 
duty  is  to  care  for  herself  and  recover  the  health 
v/hich  fits  for  service.  When  the  fire-alarm  rings  a 
dozen  streets  away,  no  one  expects  the  patients  in  a 
fever  ward,  or  in  an  infectious  hospital,  to  answer  the 


192  THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 


call.  It  is  humanity  for  all  such  to  stay  within  bounds 
till  they  are  convalescent.  They  may  give  a  hand 
in  putting  out  the  next  fire.  It  is  no  mark  of  bar- 
barism to  quarantine  a  plague-stricken  ship,  even 
though  Red  Cross  doctors  on  the  way  to  the  battlefield, 
may  be  amongst  the  passengers.  We  must  save 
ourselves,  before  curiously  dropping  our  plummet  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  last  things,  and  working  out  in 
a  curious  sum  the  ratio  of  the  redeemed  to  the  re- 
probate. Whilst  we  remain  one  in  character  with 
the  thoughtless  crowd,  we  cannot  turn  back  the  steps 
of  those  who  are  in  the  broad  and  busy  highways  of 
death,  even  though  we  have  a  sweet,  somnolent  gospel 
of  the  larger  hope  upon  our  lips.  When  we  are  within 
the  door,  we  may  well  stretch  out  our  hands  to  draw 
others  from  their  peril  into  the  sanctuary  we  have 
gained.  The  religion  of  Jesus,  wide  in  its  sympathies 
and  aims  as  all  worlds,  is  yet  individualistic  in  its 
first  steps. 

But  whatever  the  motive  of  the  question,  and  the 
final  answer  which  must  be  returned  to  it,  the  con- 
ditions which  ensure  salvation  cannot  be  relaxed  or 
popularised.  "  Gate  "  and  "way"  are  just  as  narrow 
in  this  last  stage  of  the  Lord's  ministry  as  when  He 
preached  on  the  mountain  in  Galilee.  There  can  be 
no  compromise  to  suit  the  stress  of  the  times.  The 
earliest  precepts  must  not  be  diluted.  Let  the  men 
who  would  be  saved  fit  themselves  to  the  terms,  and 
not  expect  that  the  terms  will  be  accommodated  to 
the  ignoble  weaknesses  of  human  nature.  Access 
into  salvation  is  not  like  an  undelimited  prairie 
frontier,  over  which  men  can  pass  at  will,  but  is, 
rather,  a  narrow  door,  reached  by  a  difficult  track. 
Here  again  the  Master's  words  run  counter  to  not  a 


THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL  193 


few  of  the  current  prepossessions  of  our  century,  and 
they  doubtless  crossed  men's  tastes  and  prejudices 
when  they  were  first  spoken.  We  are  in  love  with 
breadth,  blindly  so,  and  narrowness  is  one  of  the 
most  scornful  terms  found  in  our  vocabulary  of 
condemnation.  But  breadth  may  be  either  a  virtue 
or  a  vice,  according  to  the  things  of  which  it  is 
predicated.  To  have  wide  knowledge,  far-ranging 
sympathies,  a  versatile  understanding  which  can 
look  at  things  from  many  standpoints  is  good  ;  but 
to  ask  for  latitude,  under  conditions  and  in  circum- 
stances which  often  occur,  may  prove  folly  and  ruin. 
For  the  captain  to  give  himself  plenty  of  sea-room 
and  vary  his  course  in  mid-ocean  may  be  good  sea- 
manship ;  but  he  is  insane  who  when  taking  his  ship 
through  straits  strewn  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left  with  floating  torpedoes,  as  was  the  channel 
into  Port  Arthur,  talks  of  breadth  and  latitude. 
In  its  methods  of  dealing  with  native  races  our 
Government  exercises  a  breadth  and  tolerance 
which  is  expedient,  whatever  we  ma\'  think  of  its 
humanity.  If  a  Kaffir  likes  to  have  his  medicine-man 
when  he  is  sick,  and  the  Hindoo  his  exorcist,  whilst 
Science  smiles,  our  statecraft  says,  "  All  right  ;  be  it 
so  ;  let  the  man  follow  his  customs."  But  if  the  life 
of  your  wife  and  child  were  trembling  in  the  balance, 
and  the  medicine-man,  the  exorcist,  or  the  astrologer 
were  to  creep  up  to  the  door  of  the  sick-room,  your 
tolerance  would  be  at  an  end.  We  must  have  a  rigid 
science  which  excludes  empiricism  to  deal  with  a 
momentous  crisis  in  the  home.  The  door  in  this  case 
must  be  narrow,  and  the  law  of  love  makes  it  so. 
For  some  men,  be  they  rich  or  otherwise,  salvation  is 
through  the  eye  of  the  needle.     Strictness  is  the  only 

14 


194  THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 


condition  which  affords  the  slightest  ground  for  hope. 
To  put  the  Hfe  under  an  inflexible  regime  is  not  the 
way  to  pre-eminent  saintship  only,  but  to  an  elemen- 
tary salvation.  The  men  who  missed  the  door,  and 
bruised  themselves  against  the  inevitable,  prided 
themselves  on  their  tolerance.  They  were  not 
fanatics  either  in  their  opposition  to  Jesus  or  in 
espousing  his  cause. 

This  call  to  a  more  vehement  strife  after  salva- 
tion derives  much  of  its  intenseness  and  solemnity 
from  that  significant  hour  in  the  Masters'  own 
history  and  in  the  redemptive  destinies  of  mankind 
which  was  so  near  at  hand.  The  Son  of  Man  had 
passed  that  last  turn  in  His  pathway  which  brought 
the  cross  into  view,  and  His  sensibilities  already  felt 
the  strain  and  oppression  of  the  great  tragedy.  It 
seemed  to  Him  scarcely  conceivable  that  men  could 
be  saved  unless  they  entered  into  the  inwardness  of 
His  redemptive  passion.  He  had  set  Himself  to 
work  out  the  deliverance  of  the  race,  through  conflict 
and  infinite  distress,  and  the  experience  of  reconcilia- 
tion with  God  in  each  individual  member  of  the  race 
must  needs  come  through  a  conscious  oneness  with 
Himself  Salvation  cannot  be  made  so  easy  by  the 
vicarious  act  of  another  that  the  recipient  of  it  is 
released  from  all  obligation  to  strive.  What  sentient 
union  could  there  be  between  the  Man  of  Sorrows  and 
the  light-hearted  trifler,  the  man  who  made  religion 
one  of  a  group  of  refined  diversions,  the  soul  growing 
complacent  at  the  contemplation  of  its  own  formal 
virtues,  or  stupefied  by  rank,  enfeebling  voices  ?  There 
must  be  some  kind  of  compatibility  between  the 
genius  of  the  Cross  and  the  spirit  of  the  man  who 
would  find  refuge  from  wrath  through  its  vicarious 


THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL  195 

woes.  Just  as  the  tremors  of  the  earth  are  registered 
by  fine  instruments  placed  in  a  modern  observatory, 
so  the  Cross  was  a  sensitive  seismograph  in  which  the 
forces  batth'ng  to  frustrate  and  overthrow  the  Divine 
in  man,  displayed  all  their  rage  and  convulsion.  As 
the  Son  of  Man  hung  there  He  felt  within  Himself 
the  fierce  tumultuous  upheavings  of  the  nethermost 
hell,  and  he  endured  the  Cross  by  a  strong  tran- 
scendent counterpassion.  It  was  inconceivable  that 
the  forces  which  asserted  themselves  in  the  crisis  of 
the  agony,  and  were  even  now  rending  His  sacred 
soul,  would  leave  the  individual  to  work  out  His 
salvation  without  stress  or  friction.  Jesus  knew  too 
well  the  condition  of  the  problems  touched  in  this 
question  of  questions,  and  He  would  not  pamper  men 
into  moods  of  softness  and  tempers  of  seductive 
security.  It  was  no  syren's  gospel  He  had  come  to 
preach.  Fools  may  think  salvation  child's  play,  and 
that  the  risk  of  falling  short  is  inappreciable  ;  but  by 
His  own  experience  Jesus  was  compelled  to  think 
otherwise.  He  knew  that  the  man  who  would  enter 
into  salvation  must  be  prepared  to  share  the  fellow- 
ship of  His  soul-consuming  zeal.  If  two  pieces  of 
metal  are  to  be  welded  together,  they  must  both  be 
raised  to  the  same  white  heat.  Metals  in  states  of 
contrasted  temperature  cannot  be  annealed.  A  new 
struggle  was  asserting  itself  in  our  Lord's  conscious- 
ness, and  He  felt  that  he  who  would  be  saved  must 
share  it. 

Our  chemists  liquefy  atmospheric  air  by  applying 
portentously  cold  temperatures,  two  or  three  hundred 
degrees  below  freezing-point,  and  it  has  been  found 
that  under  these  ultra-Arctic  conditions  chemical 
reactions   are   no   longer   possible.     The   sun's    rays 


196  THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL 

lose  their  actinic  power.  A  lecturer  at  the  Royal 
Institution  several  years  ago  exposed  sensitised 
paper,  parts  of  which  had  been  sponged  with  liquid 
air,  to  the  light.  The  parts  untouched  were  changed 
in  tint,  as  in  the  ordinary  processes  of  photography, 
but  the  sponged  parts  were  proof  against  the  action 
of  the  sunbeams.  In  these  phenomenally  low  tem- 
peratures substances,  which  have  the  most  violent 
chemical  affinity  for  each  other,  refuse  to  combine. 
And  is  there  not  a  corresponding  fact  in  the  sphere 
of  religion  ?  Whilst  our  natures  are  abnormally  cold 
the  intensest  emanations  from  the  Light  of  the 
World  cannot  transform  us  ;  the  likeness  of  His 
death  and  resurrection  fails  to  imprint  itself  on  our 
natures.  If  we  continue  cold,  inert,  impassive,  how- 
ever close  the  original  affinities  between  the  human 
spirit  and  the  Divine,  there  can  be  no  effectual,  re- 
creating fellowship.  The  religion  which  saves  is  not 
generated  by  the  cold,  calculating  reason,  but  in 
hearts  aglow  with  exalted  fervour,  for  reason  acting 
alone  can  work  little  or  no  change  in  human  life. 
We  must  be  raised  above  freezing-point  before  we 
can  have  part  and  lot  with  the  work  of  Him  who 
redeems  us.  It  is  an  essential  part  of  our  salvation 
that  there  should  be  effort,  struggle,  holy  contention. 
Men  must  wrestle  to  win  the  door  of  escape  from 
final  darkness.  The  all-pervading  energies  of  trans- 
formation, with  which  the  redeemed  world  pulsates, 
are  dormant  in  a  cold,  religious  atmosphere. 

Jesus  points  men  to  a  realm  of  rest,  but  at  the 
same  time  He  remembers  that  they  are  benumbed 
by  the  blandishments  of  sin,  and  must  be  spurred 
into  struggle.  When  the  snov/storm  has  deadened 
the  senses  of  the  weary  wayfarer,  and  he  is  tempted 


thk  strenuous  gospel  197 


to  sleep,  it  is  not  enough  to  point  to  the  ruddy  glow 
in  the  cottage  far  away  on  the  mountain-side.  He 
is  the  victim  of  a  stupor  akin  to  death,  and  must  be 
stimulated  to  effort,  revived  by  friction,  perhaps  even 
scourged  with  whips,  to  keep  the  senses  alive.  Those 
who  want  salvation  must  enter  as  far  as  their  strength 
and  natural  limitations  allow  into  Christ's  struggle. 
The  conscience  must  be  roused,  the  fears  of  short- 
coming awakened,  all  the  resources  of  the  life  called 
forth.  At  this  crisis  in  His  history,  Jesus  felt,  as 
perhaps  never  before,  how  formidable  were  the  forces 
against  men,  and  that  the  flag  of  the  victorious  alien 
was  reared  wherever  there  was  lethargy  and  inaction  ! 
"  Strive  to  enter  in  !  " 

The  admonition  called  forth  by  the  question  of 
this  unknown  man  puts  momentous  emphasis  upon 
the  difference  between  "  seek "  and  ''  strive."  To 
"  seek  "  only  may  mean  to  fail,  but  to  "  strive  "  is  to 
attain.  The  effort  which  prevails  must  begin  at 
once  ;  whilst  to  knock  when  the  appointed  term  of 
opportunity  has  run  out  is  a  woeful  futility.  The 
conditions  being  such  as  the  Divine  wisdom  has 
determined,  the  astute  Laodicean  cannot  hope  to 
pass  within  the  door.  The  word  "  agonise "  used 
by  our  Lord  suggests  the  fierce  desperate  onset 
of  the  wrestler.  In  modern  usage  the  word  has 
come  to  stand  for  keen,  bitter  suffering,  but  it 
implied,  at  first,  the  tension  of  effort  in  the  man 
himself,  rather  than  the  burden  of  pain  laid  upon 
him.  He  who  would  enter  the  kingdom  and  find 
himself  secure  from  all  that  threatens  his  well-being, 
must  be  a  Samson  Agonistes.  Like  Jacob,  by  the 
brook  Jabbok,  he  must  contend.  The  strong- 
willed,    dauntless     wrestler,     whose     heart    dilates. 


i9«  THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 

whose  muscles  are  stretched,  whose  veins  expand, 
and  who  puts  the  entire  weight  of  his  body  into 
the  work,  is  the  type  of  the  spirit  which  cannot 
fail  of  salvation.  A  one-sided  presentation  of  the 
gospel  may  sometimes  depict  this  supreme  task 
as  free  from  hardship  and  difficulty.  To  do  some 
things  is  child's  play,  because  no  barriers  lie  across 
the  pathway  by  which  we  move.  Formidable  forces, 
however,  bar  our  progress  towards  the  door  which 
is  set  before  us — the  terrible  and  diversified  auto- 
cracies of  unseen  evil,  principalities,  powers,  and 
the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world  ;  worst  of 
all,  in  the  heart  of  man  himself  they  too  often  find 
an  ally.  Sin  is  no  trifling  purposeless  accident,  in 
the  history  of  an  irresponsible  race,  but  a  camp  of 
unholy  legions  wedged  in  between  man  and  his 
highest  destinies,  and  it  must  needs  be  overthrown. 
He  who  does  not  put  his  whole  strength  into  the 
task,  and  that  right  early,  will  irretrievably  fail. 
No  man  will  find  that  which  he  has  been  taught 
to  look  for,  because  it  is  his  good  fortune  to  have 
been  born  a  child  of  Abraham.  Struggle  is  just 
as  necessary  for  him  as  for  the  unprivileged  Gentile. 
Whether  many  or  few  are  being  saved,  salvation  is 
at  least  the  meed  of  struggle ;  if  the  many  struggle 
the  many  will  be  saved,  whilst  if  only  the  few 
struggle  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  blessings  of  final 
redemption  will  be  shared  by  the  few.  Nothing  can 
change  the  ground-facts  of  the  problem.  Those 
who  seek  when  the  door  is  closed  will  find  them- 
selves the  victims  of  an  exasperating  and  irreparable 
privation.  Each  man  must  answer  the  question  for 
himself  by  a  strenuous  and  life-long  contention. 
To    enforce  this  demand   for  zeal  in  the   pursuit 


THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL  199 

of  salvation,  the  great  Teacher  paints  a  prophetic 
picture  of  the  last  day.  Those  who  show  no  sus- 
tained earnestness  in  the  spiritual  strife  will  be 
overwhelmed  by  a  disappointment,  bitter  and  immi- 
tigable. The  door,  though  narrow,  may  be  entered 
by  the  man  who  sets  himself  to  it  ;  but  when  the 
narrow  door  is  closed,  seeking  and  striving  with  the 
might  of  the  wrestler  will  alike  be  fruitless.  It  is 
no  temporary  exclusion  from  the  fellowships  of  the 
kingdom  which  is  here  threatened  by  the  King 
and  future  Judge  of  the  race.  In  a  memorable 
oracle,  Isaiah  describes  a  judicial  hardening  of  the 
people,  which  in  due  time  was  to  pass  away  and  give 
place  to  better  dispositions  of  the  mind.  The  scene 
painted  by  the  prophet  belongs  to  a  panorama  of 
earthly  life ;  but  the  light  of  eternity  rests  on  this 
solemn  picture,  for  Abraham  and  the  elect  of  the 
Gentiles  are  brought  face  to  face.  There  is  finality 
in  the  separation  as  soon  as  a  supreme  hand  closes 
the  door  of  opportunity.  When  the  Light  which 
enlighteneth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world 
sets,  and  rises  upon  hidden  realms,  the  darkness  is 
invested  with  strange  terrors.  The  shadows  dis- 
pelled by  no  returning  day-dawn  deepen  once  the 
Master  withdraws,  and  sin  begins  to  punish  itself. 
We  know  little  at  present  of  its  grim  punitive 
power,  for  sin  as  now  seen  is  incipient  only,  passing 
through  incubation  stages.  When  from  beyond  the 
closed  door  the  voice  of  the  departed  Master  speaks 
to  men  a  fearful  judgment  has  begun.  The  man 
who  has  failed  to  make  good  his  access  at  the 
appointed  time  boasts  that  he  has  been  on  good 
social  terms  with  Jesus,  sitting  even  at  the  same 
table     and    showing    at    least    a    tepid     friendship ; 


200  THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL 

"  We  have  eaten  and  drunk  in  Thy  presence." 
When  Jesus  was  persecuted  by  others  this  belated 
suppHant  claims  that  he  at  least  was  tolerant  of  the 
gospel  message  :  "  Thou  hast  taught  in  our  streets." 
But  the  basis  for  salvation  is  not  laid  down  in  a 
policy  of  sufferance.  The  man  who  is  outside  the 
door  lacked  genuine  sympathy  with  Jesus,  showed 
no  common  consciousness,  no  comradeship  in  the 
strife  against  evil.  Such  is  the  penalty  which  alights 
upon  the  languid  and  belated  seeker  of  salvation. 
The  note  of  the  temper  which  enters  into  salvation 
is  promptness.  Do  it  now  and  lay  aside  the  habit 
of  peering  into  the  destinies  of  others,  like  a  theolo- 
gical crystal-gazer.  He  is  no  wrestler  who  is  content 
to  trust  himself  to  the  chances  of  the  morrow. 
To-morrow  is  far  more  likely  to  be  as  Jesus  pictures 
it,  rather  than  as  the  man  imagines  who  does  not 
press  at  once  into  the  kingdom. 

We  care  more  for  physical  health  than  for  the 
deathless  soul.  A  doctor  was  recently  recom- 
mending that  diagrams  of  microbes  should  be 
painted  as  big  as  wolves  and  tigers,  and  put  up 
for  the  contemplation  of  children  in  elementary 
schools.  The  new  generation  ought  to  be  indoc- 
trinated with  a  wholesome  fear  of  epidemics  and 
made  to  watch  against  the  daily  peril  of  infection. 
There  would  be  a  tremendous  outcry  if  the  modern 
preacher  were  to  warn  men  by  such  vivid  methods 
of  the  wrath  to  come.  And  yet  Jesus  drew  very 
solemn  and  startling  pictures  to  hang  before  the 
eyes  of  the  crowd. 

The  present-day  pursuit  of  salvation  lacks  earnest- 
ness, and  in  this  respect  at  least  is  aloof  from  the 
thought    which   possessed    the    mind    of    the    great 


THE   STRENUOUS  GOSPEL  201 

Teacher.  There  is  so  much  good  in  human  nature 
that  the  bad  side  of  it,  with  its  attendant  perils, 
scarcely  need  come  into  the  reckoning.  "  Easy 
all "  is  the  word  from  many  a  pulpit  caught  up 
and  echoed  by  the  heedless  outside  crowd.  Religion 
is  no  longer  a  quest  for  escape  from  a  tremendous 
jeopardy,  but  a  seventh-day  task  for  the  early 
morning,  to  be  followed  by  golf,  motoring,  or  a 
whiff  of  the  sea  on  a  pleasure-yacht,  if  a  man  can 
afford  it.  Such  an  order  of  life  has  nothing  in 
common  with  that  marked  out  by  the  Lord  for  His 
disciples.  The  intense  concentrated  struggle  to 
which  He  urged  men,  is  commensurate  with  His 
own  forecasts  and  premonitions  of  judgment.  The 
Church  has  no  such  disquieting  belief  in  retribution 
nowadays,  or  holds  it  as  an  esoteric  doctrine  to  be 
kept  out  of  view.  The  wrath  to  come  is  what  no  one 
fears,  least  of  all  the  infatuated  creatures,  who  are  in  a 
welter  of  elementary  animalism.  Readjustments  of 
the  language  used  by  our  forefathers  may  have  been 
necessary,  but  the  readjustments  have  been  made 
to  rest  upon  such  vague  and  indirect  inferences 
that  the  average  man  looks  upon  the  entire  subject 
as  flimsy  and  speculative.  To  work  out  our  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling  is  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the 
times.  We  must  appeal  to  the  nobler  motives  of  the 
gospel.  But  the  difficulty  is  that  the  tendencies  of 
the  times  are,  in  many  cases,  against  these  nobler 
motives,  and  that  there  are  multitudes  needing  the 
spur  of  fear  who  cherish  the  traditions  of  a  roseate 
gospel,  which  has  not  the  slightest  influence  over 
them.  They  hold  nothing  which  would  incline 
them  to  make  the  quest  of  salvation  the  grave  and 
all-important  subject  which  Jesus  accounts  it  in  this 


202  THE   STRENUOUS   GOSPEL 

discourse.  Our  view  of  the  future  has  nothing  in 
common  with  His,  or  we  should  think  more  seriously 
of  His  idea  of  a  narrow  door,  entered  by  struggle. 

A  few  years  ago,  on  a  keen,  bitter  winter's  night, 
a  vessel  went  down  on  our  East  coast,  in  sight  of 
land,  and  scarcely  a  survivor  was  left  to  tell  the 
tale.  The  reason  assigned  for  the  disaster  was  that 
in  the  wet,  freezing  night,  the  ropes  had  become 
rigid  as  bars  of  steel,  and  would  not  run  through  the 
blocks  and  pulleys,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to 
lower  the  boats.  God's  processes  of  salvation  cannot 
work  themselves  out  within  us  when  every  fibre  of 
the  temper  is  rigid  and  all  the  functions  of  the 
religious  nature  are  choked  with  ice.  We  can  only 
be  saved  by  zealous  and  concentrated  struggle. 
The  Lord  comes  to  preach  and  to  justify  hope  to 
the  children  of  men  ;  but  only  to  those  in  whom 
there  is  kindled  fervour  and  consuming  earnestness. 


XI 

THE    MINISTRY    OF    VINDICATIOX 
"  He  shall  glorify  Me." — John  xvi.  14. 

These  words  were  spoken  when  our  Lord  was  on 
the  brink  of  His  nethermost  shame.  Whilst  their 
accents  still  lingered  in  the  air,  the  official  repre- 
sentatives of  a  temple,  in  which  His  Father  was  still 
worshipped,  were  taking  the  last  steps  of  the  plot 
they  had  contrived  for  His  overthrow.  He  was 
going  forth  to  become  the  butt  for  Jewish  scorn 
and  Gentile  cruelty.  Such  a  prospect  might  have 
blotted  out  all  His  hopes  had  He  been  such  as 
we  are.  And  yet  this  dark  and  bitter  ignominy 
brought  no  misgivings,  for  a  startling  revolution 
was  at  hand.  The  pouring  out  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  men  was  destined  to  effect  tremen- 
dous changes,  through  which  the  blind,  impious, 
criminal  multitudes  with  their  leaders,  who  now  set 
Him  at  nought,  should  be  transformed  into  adoring 
believers.  The  movement  within  human  souls  set  up 
by  the  incoming  breath  of  God,  would  endow  them 
with    new  perceptions  and   entirely  change  the  old 

view-point.     Earth,  no  less  than  heaven,  would  soon 

203 


204  "I'HE   MINISTRY  OF  VINDICATION 

become  a  sphere  in  which  He  would  be  crowned  with 
strange  honour.  In  scenes  of  blackest  discourage- 
ment He  maintained,  what  we  so  often  lack,  faith  in 
the  sufficiency  of  the  Spirit  to  put  the  facts  of  His 
life  and  death  in  a  new  light,  and  make  His  name 
high  above  every  name. 

Meek  and  lowly  in  spirit  and  speech.  He  had  never 
sought  to  magnify  Himself  Again  and  again  He 
refused  openly  to  announce  His  Messianic  office,  and 
limited  Himself  to  brief  hints  concerning  the  nature 
of  the  work  He  was  sent  to  do.  But  in  this  last  hour 
He  ventures  to  say  that,  even  here  upon  earth,  a  day 
of  honour  is  about  to  dawn,  sure  as  the  day  of  His 
triumphal  entry  into  heaven.  For  a  moment  only,  in 
the  strange  chronicles  of  human  history,  was  he  in 
disesteem  and  contempt ;  but  for  many  ages  He 
should  be  encompassed  with  praise  to  the  glory  of 
the  Father  and  for  the  uplifting  of  mankind.  The 
splendour  of  the  great  coronation  in  heaven  was  soon 
to  reflect  itself  through  all  earthly  kingdoms,  and 
that  splendour  was  to  be  the  unfading  light  of  a  new 
dispensation.  This  confidence  was  bound  up  with 
the  sure  ministry  of  the  Spirit  within  all  human  souls. 
In  a  temper  of  pathetic  trust  He  committed  all  things 
to  that  Divine  kinsman  who  should  hereafter  vindi- 
cate His  name  and  set  forth  His  power  and  immortal 
sovereignty. 

This  declaration  vouchsafes  some  gleam  of  insight 
into  the  mysterious  relations  existing  within  the  God- 
head. Each  sharer  of  the  Triune  life  can  seek  His 
Fellow's  honour,  without  falling  into  the  fault  de- 
nounced by  Jesus  Christ,  of  seeking  his  own 
praise.  The  Son  exalts  not  Himself,  but  through- 
out His   life  of  humiliation   upon    earth   is   exalted 


THE   MINISTRY  OF   VINDICATION  205 

and  magnified  by  the  witness  of  the  Father,  and 
the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  congregation  of  the 
faithful  continues  the  work  of  the  Father.  We 
sometimes  think  of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the 
Lamb  in  heaven,  encircled  by  the  songs  of  redeemed 
hosts,  as  though  that  were  the  only  place  where 
meet  honour  is  paid  to  His  name  ;  but  the  heart 
opened  to  the  approaches  of  the  Spirit  on  earth  is 
a  meaner,  though  no  less  true,  shrine,  where  great 
tributes  of  homage  are  rendered.  In  consecrating 
our  souls  as  spheres  for  the  ministry  of  Him  whose 
work  is  to  glorify  Christ,  we  echo  the  honour  Jesus 
receives  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  the 
Spirit  through  us  pays  honour  to  the  majesty  of  the 
Son.  It  is  to  the  glory  of  One  who  was  once  despised 
and  rejected,  and  who  hung  upon  a  cross,  that  the 
Comforter  renews  and  sanctifies  successive  genera- 
tions of  disciples.  The  reverence  we  accord  to  Jesus 
Christ  is  no  uncertain  test  of  our  baptism  into  the 
power  of  the  Spirit,  and  illustrates  the  stage  reached 
by  His  sacred  illuminations  within  the  soul. 

Is  there  a  revelation  of  Jesus  by  the  Spirit,  uplift- 
ing and  energising  our  ideas  of  His  work  and  person, 
distinct  from  that  which  is  purely  historic  ?  Was  not 
Jesus  sufficiently  vindicated  and  extolled  by  the  four- 
fold portraiture  of  His  life,  character,  and  achievement 
presented  in  the  Gospels  ?  Does  the  ministry  of  the 
Spirit  add  anything  to  the  impression  received  through 
the  story  of  His  oft-repeated  miracles,  the  Transfigura- 
tion on  the  Mount, and  the  Resurrection  from  the  dead? 
The  Gospels  certainly  show  us  the  glory  of  God's 
Son,  and  give  signs  and  assurances  that  he  is  en- 
throned at  the  right  hand  of  power  as  a  royal 
Mediator  for  sinful  men.     But  the  Epistles  put  us  in 


2o6  THE   MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 

possession  of  a  more  mature  view,  and  in  these 
exalted  conceptions  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  foretold 
by  Jesus,  reflects  itself  He  who  brought  all  things 
to  the  remembrance  of  the  apostles  glorified  the 
Son  with  ever-growing  clearness  in  the  earlier  and 
later  portions  of  the  inspired  Word.  But  side  by 
side  with  the  inspiration  of  the  apostles  a  process 
of  illumination  was  going  on  in  the  multitudes  of 
believers,  and  is  still  continued,  which  fulfilled  this 
promise.  Such  test-axioms  as  "  No  man  can  say 
that  Jesus  is  Lord  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost/'  and 
"  Every  spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God  "  must  be  traced  back  to 
these  words  of  the  departing  Lord. 

The  work  of  the  Spirit,  of  course,  implies  that 
these  widespread  and  perpetual  revelations  have,  as 
their  basis  and  starting-point,  the  substance  of  a 
historic  personality.  It  is  no  subjective  creation  in 
mid-air  which  the  Spirit  is  sent  to  achieve.  His 
ministry  does  not  merely  precipitate  into  concrete 
form  holy  dreams  which  visited  a  group  of  Galilean 
mystics.  The  Spirit  developes  within  men  new 
senses,  whereby  they  see  the  glory  of  Jesus  upon 
the  earth,  claimed  as  the  domain  of  His  redemptive 
power.  He  founded  a  new  doctrine  of  the  God-Man 
by  enlarging  the  range  of  spiritual  perception  in  His 
followers. 

He  who  teaches  me  to  see  the  more  subtle  and 
delicate  qualities  in  a  noble  painting  puts  new  honour 
upon  the  artist  and  enlarges  the  circle  of  his  admirers. 
We  all  know  the  name  of  the  man  who  discovered 
Scotland,  and  by  his  rare  romances  peopled  with 
scenes  of  heroism  and  chivalry,  its  lochs  and  rivers, 
its  mountains  and  moors.     After  Walter  Scott  had 


THE    MINISTRY   OF    VINDICATION  207 

written,  no  one  could  speak  of  the  country  in  the 
disdainful  tones  assumed  by  Samuel  Johnson,  for  that 
master  of  modern  romance  had  shed  a  new  glory  upon 
bleakest  landscapes.  We  have  read  of  the  skill  with 
which  patient,  large-hearted  educationists  have  trained 
poor  souls  afflicted  with  the  triple  loss  of  speech, 
hearing,  and  sight,  and  by  addressing  the  one  sur- 
viving sense  of  touch  have  brought  the  soul  out  of  its 
dungeon  and  made  it  free  of  the  world.  Such  ill- 
fated  beings  have  at  last  been  able  to  tell  by  a  psychic 
instinct  how  many  people  were  present  in  a  room,  to 
discriminate  dispositions,  and  to  know  themselves  in 
a  realm  ^peopled  with  throbbing  personalities  and  not 
by  mere  moving  forms  and  shapes.  They  have  learned 
something  of  the  glory  of  the  world,  have  acquired 
the  love  of  flowers,  and  have  developed  a  taste  for 
precious  stones,  jewellery,  and  the  beautiful  things 
which  adorn  civilised  life.  Their  instructors  have 
changed  the  world  from  a  monotonous  prison-house 
into  a  glowing  and  opulent  mansion.  If  they  have 
not  created  new  senses  they  have  taught  new  uses  of 
the  one  surviving  sense  of  touch. 

And  the  Spirit  brings  men  into  realms,  from  which 
they  were  once  debarred,  where  they  acquire  a  new 
sense  of  moral  values.  He  glorifies  Christ  by  revolu- 
tionising past  estimates  and  bringing  home  to  the 
conscience  and  the  heart  His  incomparable  worth. 
The  process  is  complementary  to  the  worship  Jesus 
receives  at  the  right  hand  of  power :  and  perhaps  it 
is  just  as  grateful  to  His  heart. 

The  first  step  in  the  work  of  the  Spirit  was  to  put 
upon  the  human  character  of  Jesus  Christ  a  halo  of 
matchless  glory.  He  dispelled  with  a  swift  magic,  the 
ignominy  of  the  Cross,  and  made  the  spiritual  excel- 


2o8  THE   MINISTRY   OF  VINDICATION 

lence  manifested  by  its  meek,  unselfish  victim  the 
new  ideal  of  the  human  race.  To  bring  this  to  pass 
was  not  the  whole  of  the  work  assigned  to  the  Spirit, 
but  it  was  a  most  wonderful  thing,  the  full  significance 
of  which  is  not  easy  to  grasp.  Jesus  had  been  rejected 
by  men  who  belonged  to  the  most  enlightened  and 
religious  race  of  the  world,  and  put  to  death  with 
every  mark  of  obloquy,  because  a  claim  he  had  ad- 
vanced seemed  at  the  first  glance  to  conflict  with  one 
of  their  foundation  dogmas.  The  multitudes  were 
blinded  by  deference  to  a  biassed  judgment  of  their 
unscrupulous  leaders,  just  as  we  are  sometimes  mis- 
led by  rash  verdicts  upon  men  and  nations  pro- 
mulgated through  a  mercenary  press.  And  yet 
within  a  few  decades  the  judges  were  judged,  and 
the  reversal  of  the  sentence  had  become  all  but 
world-wide.  The  man  crucified  between  two  thieves, 
as  though  he  were  the  ringleader  of  a  miscreant  band, 
rose  to  be  accepted  as  a  pattern  of  perfect  and  un- 
blemished holiness.  Not  to  overstate  the  question, 
at  the  present  time  he  is  recognised  in  both  hemi- 
spheres as  the  Catholic  example  of  what  humanity 
should  be,  the  matchless  flower  of  all  its  virtues.  No 
other  teacher  so  entirely  harmonised  high  theory 
with  the  uncompromising  daily  practice  of  the  best 
he  could  conceive.  The  fine  ethic  taught  by  some 
representative  leaders  is  a  product  of  the  imagination, 
for  they  dreamed  nobler  things  than  they  could 
materialise  into  the  normal  habits  of  their  imperfect 
age.  It  was  otherwise  with  Jesus,  for  He  drew  His 
ethic  from  the  fibres  of  His  own  essential  life,  and  it 
borrowed  neither  outline  nor  colour  from  an  over- 
strained intellectual  art.  Wherever  there  is  a  man  in 
whom  the  best  moral  aspirations  have  been  aroused, 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION  209 

that  man  wants  to  imitate  this  subHme  Jewish  out- 
cast. When  a  poet  or  a  statesman  becomes  famous, 
his  admirers  set  themselves  to  copy  what  is  adven- 
titious, affecting  even  the  same  fashions  in  dress  and 
flowers.  But  before  many  years  have  run  their 
course,  such  trivial  mimicries  droop  and  die, 
becoming  in  due  time  the  jest  of  the  biographer. 
For  centuries  serious  moralists  have  felt  that  they 
could  do  nothing  better  than  catch  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  ;  and  the  spell  of  his  fascination  has  not  yet 
spent  itself  His  spirit  and  behaviour,  his  purpose, 
method,  and  programme  have  been  accepted  as  of 
culminating  excellence.  Not  for  the  Jew  only,  but 
for  every  leading  race  of  man  He  has  become  the 
supreme  pattern  of  conduct. 

And  this  in  itself  involves  an  amazing  revolution. 
Not  only  has  His  character  been  rescued  from  the 
reproach  which  foes  sought  to  cast  upon  it,  but  it  has 
become  accepted  as  a  sovereign  ideal,  and  the  natures 
most  embruted  are  often  constrained  to  feel  its  mystic 
attraction.  We  might  quote  many  examples  of  the 
revised  judgments  which  have  taken  place  in  history, 
but  this  does  not  belong  to  the  secular  category,  for 
such  revisions  are  often  slow  in  taking  place,  and 
have  to  wait  till  many  a  prejudiced  generation  has 
died  out.  The  change  in  the  temper  of  the  crowd 
was  sudden  as  the  veering  round  of  the  wind  in  a 
magnetic  storm.  Within  a  few  days  of  His  death, 
and  in  the  very  city  where  he  had  been  put  to  un- 
deserved shame,  the  conversion  of  public  opinion 
came.  It  was  but  the  first  step  in  the  patient,  long- 
continued  work  of  the  Spirit,  but  this  outpoured  gift 
placed  Jesus  high  above  the  saints  and  prophets  of 
His  race.     Whilst  a  hundred   and  twenty  men  and 

15 


210  THE   MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 


women  were  praying  in  a  private  house  the  rushing 
wind  came.  Three  thousand  were  pricked  to  the 
heart  as  Peter  preached,  and  this  fair  name  was 
cleansed  from  its  momentary  reproach  in  the  tears  of 
penitent  persecutors.  From  that  day  to  this  the 
work  of  the  Spirit  has  been  growing  through  wider 
areas  of  population,  and  has  given  to  Jesus  the  fore- 
most place  in  the  reverence  of  the  race.  He  is  surely 
enthroned  in  the  higher  consciousness  of  the  nations 
as  the  one  pattern  of  goodness,  and  through  the  long 
centuries,  no  rival  has  appeared.  The  moral  sense  of 
an  evil  generation  has  been  rectified  from  its  grosser 
errors  and  obliquities,  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  word 
began,  and  still  continues,  "  He  shall  glorify  Me." 
What  a  vast  change  triumphantly  achieved  and  with 
incredible  swiftness  ! 

The  next  step  in  the  Spirit's  work  for  Christ  was 
to  shed  light  upon  the  dark,  deep  meanings  of  the 
Cross.  By  His  inward  illumination.  He  not  only  took 
away  every  trace  of  scandal  from  the  tree  to  which 
Jesus  was  nailed,  but  demonstrated  the  power  of  the 
death  endured  there  to  accomplish  what  no  sacrifice, 
however  heroic,  had  hitherto  wrought.  The  Cross 
was  no  sickening  fatality,  no  repulsive  miscarriage  of 
justice,  no  new  martyrdom,  exceeding  all  its  pre- 
decessors in  painful  inscrutability.  It  was  bound  to 
take  on  a  redemptive  significance,  or  to  stand  as  a 
grim,  age-long  monument  of  the  anarchies  of  a  God- 
forsaken history. 

Over  the  apse  of  an  old  cathedral  in  Normandy  a 
rough  cross  of  wood  is  hung,  behind  which  looms  a 
window  of  solemn  blues  and  purples.  If  a  stranger 
enters  the  place  as  the  shadows  of  night  close  in  the 
custodian  suddenly  turns  on  the  electric  light,  and 


THE   MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION  21  i 


the  outlines  of  the   dreaded   tree  are  studded  with 
glittering  stars.    The  ancient  instrument  of  ignominy 
and  torture  is  made  to  shine  through  the  shadows 
like  a  matchless  constellation  of  the  firmament.     In 
a  far  higher  sphere  such  a  transformation  was  wrought 
before  the  awe-struck  gaze  of  the  world.    The  symbol 
of  infamy  and   shame,  where  the  rejected  Messiah 
hung    in    the   blackness  of  a    preternatural    eclipse, 
suddenly   shone    forth   as   a    token    of  redemption. 
Divine  glories  radiated  from  the  tree  to  which  He 
was  nailed,  and  drew  to  His  matchless  sacrifice,  the 
wonder,  the  worship,  and  the  trust  of  the  world.     It 
is  the  illumination  of  the  Spirit  which  changes  the 
weird  spectacle  of  the  desolate  night,  and  glorifies 
Christ  in  the  crisis  of  His  uttermost  reproach  and 
tribulation.    The  moral  attributes  that  there  clothed 
Him  outshone  the    mighty  natural    attributes    men 
had  hitherto  associated  with  the  Godhead.     Before 
the  Pentecost  the  Cross  was  a  gibbet,  at  which  the 
beholder  stumbled  in  the  darkness  ;  but  when  the  day 
of  the  great  outpouring  was  fully  come  the  gibbet 
became  an   altar-stair  by  which  men   rose  into  the 
beatific  presence.     Not  only  did  the  Spirit  vindicate 
the  suffering  Son  against  every  allegation  of  guilt  or 
moral  heresy,  but  by  the  creation  of  a  new  order  of 
experience   wherever    the    Cross   was    preached,   he 
proved  that  this  death  had  in  it  a  power  to  dispel  the 
condemnations  stifling  the  soul,  and  to  cleanse  the 
conscience  from  every  spot  cleaving  to  it.     Such  a 
fact  was  without  parallel,  and  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
became  indissolubly  linked  with  the  glory  that  was 
to  follow. 

How  did  this  doctrine  of  reconciliation,  so  closely 
identified  with  the  glory  of  our  Lord's  person  arise  ? 


212  1'HE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 

Were  those  upon  whom  the  truth  first  dawned  led 
through  an  experience  of  salvation,  to  infer  the  pro- 
pitiatory power  of  the  Cross  ;  or  did  they  first  accept 
a  specific  and  formulated  article  of  faith  and  so  reach 
that  life  of  trust  upon  which  the  Spirit  afterwards  put 
his  seal  ?  In  other  words,  did  the  experience  come 
first  and  produce  the  doctrine  ;  or  did  the  doctrine 
come  first  and  produce  the  experience  ?  Perhaps  the 
two  processes  were  more  or  less  coincident  and  com- 
bined. For  the  apostles  themselves  and  all  after 
believers,  the  disencumbered  conscience  held  the 
substance  of  an  evangel. 

This  work  of  the  Spirit,  through  which  the  motive 
of  the  Passion  was  illuminated,  gathered  up  into  itself 
many  factors.  The  Spirit  brought  back  to  mind  the 
words  of  Jesus,  who  had  said  the  Scriptures  testified 
that  He  must  needs  suffer.  New  light  began  at 
the  same  time  to  dawn  upon  the  typical  sacrifices 
of  the  temple,  whereby  ritual  expiation  of  offences 
had  been  made.  And,  above  all,  the  superhuman  life 
of  Jesus,  ending  in  such  incongruous  and  abysmal 
pain,  cried  out  for  an  interpetation  of  commensurate 
significance  and  solemnity. 

But  the  world  would  have  had  no  Christian 
doctrine  of  atonement  apart  from  the  sin-convincing 
work  of  the  Spirit  at  the  Pentecost.  The  sense  of 
guilt  aroused  by  His  witness  within  the  conscience- 
smitten  multitudes  made  them  realise  that  a  Divine 
sacrifice  was  necessary  for  the  putting  away  of  trans- 
gression. The  cry  of  the  soul,  haunted  with  a  sense 
of  its  own  misdeeds,  was  met  through  those  pacifying 
inspirations  which  gave  new  insight  into  the  character, 
majestic  personality,  and  sacrificial  work  of  Jesus. 
That   the    Lord    Himself  said   so    little    about    the 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION  213 

meaning  of  His  own  death  need  be  no  surprise  to  us, 
for  the  work  of  interpretation  was  reserved  to  the 
Spirit  who  glorified  Christ.  It  was  the  crowning 
distinction  of  His  ministry  to  set  forth  the  Saviour's 
redeeming  love  and  power.  Through  his  Pentecostal 
movement  upon  the  soul  and  through  all  the  forces 
emanating  from  His  after-ministry  in  the  world,  He 
transformed  a  tragedy  into  a  gospel.  To  the  dis- 
ciples, as  well  as  to  the  contrite  multitudes,  there 
came  a  simultaneous  discovery  of  the  deeper  in- 
tention, the  soul-hallowing  virtue,  the  mediating 
power  of  a  death  which  had  hitherto  been  a  soul- 
paralysing  offence.  Other  deaths  divide,  pre-emi- 
nently deaths  of  violence,  but  this  had  within  its 
mysteries  a  secret  of  reconciliation.  The  mortal 
frailty  of  our  Lord's  flesh  was  shown  to  be  the  sub- 
lime and  final  revelation  of  the  love  of  God.  The 
Spirit  could  put  no  higher  glory  upon  Jesus  than 
to  show  that  His  holy  attributes  gave  a  world- 
redeeming  efficacy  to  an  ignominious  Cross. 

The  Spirit  glorifies  the  Son  by  opening  up,  to  the 
Church  on  earth,  visions  of  His  high  estate  at  the 
right  hand  of  power.  When  Jesus  was  still  standing 
on  Olivet,  awaiting  His  final  call  into  the  Father's 
presence,  He  spake  yet  again  to  the  disciples  of 
the  coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  inward  ministry 
was  to  bring  to  their  knowledge  things  not  to  be 
seen  through  eyes  of  flesh,  as  they  stood  gazing 
into  heaven.  The  upper  room  proved  itself  a  nobler 
vantage-ground,  for,  through  its  baptisms,  there 
came  to  the  disciples  and  their  comrades,  a  larger 
apocalypse  and  a  more  penetrating  insight  into  the 
heavenly  sanctuary  than  could  be  obtained  from  the 
ridge  of  a  hill,  made  sacred  by  His  footsteps.     On 


214  THE   MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 

the  wings  of  that  uplifting  inspiration  they  rose  into 
the  heavenly  places,  and  learned  the  power  of  their 
Master's   work    as    Priest   and    King.     Through  the 
Spirit  of  revelation  in  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ, 
they  felt  and  knew  that  their  Friend  was  possessed 
of  all  authority  in  heaven,  as  well  as  on  earth,  that 
His  saving  sovereignty  was  unlimited,  and  that  He 
was  indeed  co-partner  with  the  Eternal  Himself    The 
vision  was  the  proof  that  He  had  power   in  heaven 
to  forgive  sins,  as  the  miracle  in  bygone  days  had 
been  the  sign  of  His  power  on  earth.   This  new  sense 
of  His   prerogatives  cast  a  retrospective  light  upon 
His  sacrifice,  showing  that  within  it  there  were  Divine 
qualities  which   made  it  a  sure  ground  for   the  for- 
giveness of  human  sin.     The  life  within  the  disciples 
became  linked  with  the  life   before  the  throne,  and 
every  rich   and   varied   gift  of  the  Spirit,   so  freely 
bestowed,  became  a  new  sign  in  which  they  read  the 
message  of  their  Lord's  enthronement  on  high.     The 
holy  forces   seizing  on  human   hearts  and  subduing 
them  to  better  things  emanated   from   the  presence 
within    the   veil.       Release    from    fierce,    tormenting 
soul-bondage,  a  note  of  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord  to  those  who   welcomed   the   gospel,  was  the 
earthly  complement  to  His  heavenly  kingship.     His 
advocacy  was    mighty  as    in    the   days   of  old    and 
His    intercessions  as  fruitful.     Every   new  aspect  of 
the  salvation,  into  which  disciples  entered  through 
faith,  linked  itself  with  the  dominion  of  Jesus  in  the 
heavens.     The    Spirit,    by    bearing    witness    within 
human  hearts  on  earth  to  the  efficacious  and  redeem- 
ing ministry  within  the  veil,  reaffirmed  day  by  day 
the  fact  of  His  triumphal  ascension.     His  revelations 
suffused  with  the  transfiguration  of  a  supernal  light 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION  215 

the  cross,  the  mediatorial  throne,  and  the  Church 
amongst  men,  within  which  His  spiritual  presence 
still  tarried. 

The  glory  of  Jesus,  set  forth  on  earth  by  the 
ever-present  Spirit,  was  sometimes  seen  in  visible 
symbols  of  His  exalted  sovereignty.  It  is  instructive 
to  remember  that  the  men  who  had  the  clearest 
visions  of  the  transfigured  Lord  were  said  to  be 
"  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  Stephen  saw  the 
radiant  humanity  of  Jesus  through  sense-perceptions, 
which  had  been  exalted  into  ecstasy.  Perhaps  the 
words  spoken  by  Jesus  before  this  same  council, 
had  shaped  and  coloured  the  high  fulfilments  this 
disciple  perceived  in  the  hour  of  His  martyrdom. 
This  vision  of  Jesus,  at  the  right  hand  of  power, 
may  have  been  the  keynote  of  the  language  after- 
ward used  in  some  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  It  was 
when  John  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  Day  that 
he  saw  Jesus  in  kingly  vestments,  with  a  countenance 
like  the  sun  shining  in  His  strength — a  Jesus  sceptred, 
many-crowned,  and  with  a  dominion  growing  in  spite 
of  persecuting  Caesars  on  the  throne  at  Rome  and 
the  shadows  of  war,  famine,  pestilence  sweeping  over 
the  face  of  the  nations,  like  storm-rack  from  the 
abysses  of  destruction.  Amidst  these  portentous 
scenes  the  Spirit  was  vindicating  the  power  and 
majesty  of  the  Son. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  the  Divine 
glory  of  Jesus,  made  known  to  the  early  dis- 
ciples by  the  Spirit,  was  always  visualised  into 
pictures.  Within  the  consciousness  of  the  common 
believer  there  was  a  sure  and  unassailable  sense  of 
the  power  of  the  triumphant  Christ,  and  all  spiritual 
life   was    an    expression    of   it.      That    was    enough. 


2i6  THE   MINISTRY  OF   VINDICATION 

Every  step  of  progress  was  a  witness  to  His  re- 
demptive sovereignty.  Tlie  glory  of  prevailing 
prayer  was  the  effulgence  of  Him  in  whose  name  the 
Spirit  prompted  men  to  offer  it.  The  sanctities 
which  beautify  the  Church,  in  the  successive  gene- 
rations of  its  history,  speak  of  His  name  and  inward 
dominion.  The  good  and  perfect  gifts  divided  to 
men  by  the  will  of  the  Spirit,  came  down  from  above, 
stamped  as  the  largess  of  a  Son  who,  having  led 
captivity  captive,  passed  beyond  earthly  humili- 
ations. The  Church  on  earth,  in  which  the  Spirit 
dwells,  perpetuates  His  tenderness,  succour,  boundless 
charities,  and  Jesus  lacks  His  due  honour  apart  from 
these  glorifying  inspirations.  It  is  not  by  the  wealth 
of  sacred  fanes,  not  by  the  radiance  of  art,  not  by 
the  gold  of  Ophir  or  the  gifts  of  kings  that  He  is 
honoured,  but  by  that  inward  homage  won  for  His 
name  by  the  transforming  Spirit.  When  every  knee 
shall  bow,  it  will  be  not  by  imperial  edicts,  or  the 
mandate  of  states,  but  through  this  all-subduing, 
inward  ministry.  We  see  His  glory  as  did  Esaias,  a 
glory  which  is  filling  heaven  and  earth,  and  the 
minister  of  the  illuminating  revelation  is  the  Spirit. 
Those  who  find  in  Jesus  the  chief  of  the  world's 
saints,  a  Prince  of  teachers,  the  best  of  reformers,  a 
sublime  personality,  but  lacking  a  Divine  crown,  are 
not  like  John  in  Patmos  suffused  with  the  influences 
of  that  Spirit  whose  mission  it  is  to  glorify  Christ. 

Our  Lord  looked  upon  the  souls  of  all  future  be- 
lievers as  the  special  sphere  within  which  He  should 
be  glorified  by  the  Comforter.  It  was  not  only 
through  the  doctrine  of  His  work  and  person,  formu- 
lated by  future  leaders  of  the  Church,  that  He  was  to 
be  raised  into  an  object  of  faith  and  adoration,  nor 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION  217 

by  the  outward  homage  won  to  His  name  through 
the  testimony  of  others.  The  doctrine  of  His 
person  and  work  asserts  itself  anew,  and  is  sealed 
afresh,  in  all  evangelical  experience.  The  Spirit 
magnifies  His  name  wherever  there  is  a  docile  and 
contrite  soul,  and  at  all  times.  It  is  not  sufficient 
for  the  man,  within  whose  mind  some  unredressed 
wrong  rankles,  to  see  the  glory  of  the  British  throne 
reflected  in  the  crown-jewels,  so  jealously  guarded 
within  the  Tower  of  London.  The  victim  of  an 
incurable  disease  finds  little  glory  in  the  Coronation 
procession,  of  which  he  catches  glimpses  from 
the  balcony  of  a  hospital.  It  is  not  enough  that 
the  British  subject,  who  has  been  misjudged  and 
cast  into  a  foul  foreign  jail,  should  be  shown  a 
photographic  reproduction  of  the  great  Charter, 
signed  at  Runnymede,  which  secures  our  liberties. 
That  is  to  mock  his  misery  and  bring  the  realm 
of  which  he  is  a  subject  into  contempt.  The  power 
which  is  sworn  to  uphold  the  Charter  and  keep  it 
from  becoming  a  dead  letter,  must  show  itself  strong 
to  remove  the  outrage.  The  true  splendour  of  the 
throne  is  not  seen  in  pageants  and  durbars.  These 
are  only  symbols.  The  glory  of  Christ  as  a  Saviour 
does  not  depend  upon  the  circles  of  light  painters 
put  about  His  head,  nor  upon  the  hymns  poets 
sing  in  His  praise,  nor  upon  the  marble  shrines 
dedicated  to  His  honour,  but  upon  the  fresh 
unveiling  of  His  power  to  successive  generations  of 
men  ;  and  with  this  work  the  Eternal  Spirit  is 
charged.  It  is  needful  that  this  tribute  to  Christ's 
power  and  majesty  should  be  paid  within  each 
single  soul,  and  that  His  redeeming  sovereignty 
should  be  shown  wherever  a  stain  of  <7uilt  eats  itself 


2i8  THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 

into  the  conscience  or  an  evil  habit  impoverishes 
the  Hfe.  Just  as  the  Son  was  sent  to  do  the  will 
of  the  Father,  and  further  His  purposes  of  grace, 
so  also  is  the  Spirit  sent  to  continue  by  His  un- 
w^earied  activities  the  mission  of  the  Son,  and  to 
make  Him  known  in  the  experiences  of  the  age- 
long Church.  It  is  His  vocation  to  clear  the  Son 
from  the  aspersions  cast  upon  Him  by  the  princes 
of  this  world,  and  to  put  immortal  honour  upon 
the  work  they  had  set  themselves  to  frustrate  and 
destroy.     In  such  a  vocation  the  Spirit  cannot  fail. 

The  new  filial  consciousness,  with  all  its  sure 
consolations,  is  a  part  of  the  experience  created 
by  the  Spirit  to  the  glory  of  the  Son.  It  is  from 
this  standpoint  that  the  high  privilege  of  the  believer 
must  be  judged,  for  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
heart  gathers  up  and  expresses  a  tribute,  not  to 
a  lost  and  recovered  merit  of  human  nature,  but 
to  an  honour  pertaining  to  Him  who  has  entered 
the  soul  to  redeem  and  sanctify  by  His  indwelling 
grace.  The  certainties  of  salvation,  which  root 
themselves  in  the  man  who  is  united  to  Christ,  are 
derided  as  though  they  were  the  products  of  ex- 
travagance and  spiritual  pride  ;  but  the  assurance 
which  frail,  contrite  offenders  receive  as  the  children 
of  God,  is  no  homage  paid  to  their  personal  worth, 
but  a  reiteration,  in  new  form,  of  the  homage 
received  by  the  well-beloved  Son,  in  whom  the 
Father  is  ever  pleased.  It  is  quite  true  that  they 
are  not  good  enough,  of  themselves,  to  enjoy  a 
distinction  which  separates  them  from  their  fellow- 
sinners  in  the  world,  for  they  have  gone  astray 
and  have  forfeited  the  signet-ring  as  others.  The 
inward    and    soul-gladdening    persuasion    of    which 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION  219 

they  speak,  is  undeserved,  and  belongs  to  the 
honour  of  Him  who  fulfilled  all  righteousness, 
and  who  is  repeating  His  work  within  those  who, 
through  His  transcendent  merits,  are  made  heirs  of 
all  things.  That  to  which  the  Spirit  bears  witness, 
when  He  brings  the  sense  of  sure  salvation,  is  the 
virtue  of  the  one  solitary  sacrifice,  and  the  power 
of  His  ever-present  love  to  comfort  and  transform. 
The  possibility  of  assurance  must  be  determined 
by  the  question.  Is  Jesus  thus  magnified  through 
the  Spirit  who  conveys  the  gift,  and  guards  the 
mind  in  its  possession?  It  is  inconceivable  that 
such  a  witness  should  be  given  to  the  man  who, 
in  his  own  unaided  strength,  has  risen  highest  in  the 
scale  of  moral  attainment.  If  it  be  clear  that  this 
gift  is  bestowed  in  honour  of  the  Son,  to  withhold 
it  is  not  to  humble  human  nature  by  keeping  alive 
the  remembrance  of  its  failure,  but  to  prolong, 
beyond  its  appointed  time,  the  humiliation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  To  impugn  a  sincere  believer's  pos- 
session of  this  gift  is  to  obscure  the  reflected  light 
of  the  Lord's  glory,  at  the  right  hand  of  power. 
Assurance  claims  to  be  neither  more  nor  less 
than  a  sign  of  the  consummate  perfection  of 
Christ's  work  within  the  heart  which  receives  Him. 
By  His  redemptive  ministry  He  not  only  frees  from 
guilt  and  wrath,  but  brings  a  sense  of  restored  son- 
ship  within  the  compass  of  human  experience ;  and 
in  setting  this  forth  the  Spirit  honours  the  first-born 
Son.  It  could  not  be  to  the  glory  of  Christ  to 
keep  in  doubt,  misgiving,  tormenting  fear,  those 
incorporated  into  His  fellowship. 

The    appointed    work    of  the  Spirit    in    glorifying 
Christ  gives  us  the  standard  of  reckoning  by  which 


220  THE   MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 

the  possibilities  of  human  character  must  be  judged. 
Can  the  power  of  Christ  be  so  magnified  in  these 
struggh'ng,  oft-thwarted,  dust-soiled  lives  that  we 
may  become  without  spot  or  blemish  ?  The  loftiest 
altitude  to  which  men  may  ascend  under  such 
economies  is  not  some  paltry  mean  between  the 
weakness  of  the  flesh  and  the  capacities  of  the  re- 
newed soul,  in  which  nature  and  grace  seem  to 
find  a  working  compromise.  Our  Lord  is  glori- 
fied when  His  image  is  so  reflected  in  us  that 
the  world  can  trace  the  kinship.  It  is  not  as  a 
palliative  of  imperfection  that  His  righteousness  is 
imputed  to  us,  but  as  a  final  pattern  of  spirit  and 
behaviour.  When  we  say  that  liberty  from  wilful  sin 
is  impossible  to  those  who  are  weighted  by  the 
infirmities  of  the  flesh,  we  put  a  limit  to  the  work 
of  the  Spirit  in  extolling  and  upholding  the  moral 
sovereignty  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  His 
people.  The  ministry  of  the  Spirit,  to  the  honour 
of  the  Master's  name,  must  surely  bring  to  an  end 
our  persistent  blemishes.  The  glory  of  the  sun, 
with  all  the  tremulous  magic  concealed  within  his 
encircling  rays,  cannot  by  any  chance  assert  itself 
in  the  thick,  sickening  denseness  of  a  London  fog. 
The  atmosphere  must  be  cleansed  by  wind  and 
rain,  its  impurities  precipitated,  the  defilements 
with  which  it  is  charged  driven  away,  before  rain- 
bows will  begin  to  shape  themselves  to  the  vision. 
And  the  whole  atmosphere  of  human  life  must  be 
organically  changed  and  sweetened,  the  darkness  that 
cleaves  to  us  must  be  chased,  the  impurities  we 
breathe  must  be  got  rid  of,  before  the  transfiguration 
splendour  of  the  Son  of  God  can  appear  in  the 
Churches  ;    and    Jesus  is  glorified   when   the    subtle 


THE   MINISTRY   OF  VINDICATION  221 

environment  of  the  personality  is  renewed  by  the 
work  of  the  Spirit.  Paul  speaks  of  his  comrades  in 
the  service  of  the  gospel  as  "  the  messengers  of  the 
Churches  and  the  glory  of  Christ."  The  Spirit  had 
made  the  evangelists  a  new  creation,  and  had  so 
sensibly  sanctified  them  to  their  sacred  missions  that 
they  mirrored  Jesus  Christ  in  their  unselfish  lives, 
thus  constraining  men  to  confess  the  power  of  the 
ascended  King  and  to  magnify   His  name. 

In  the  sufferings  and  faithful  deaths  of  the 
disciples,  the  Spirit  consummates  His  work  of  glorify- 
ing Jesus  upon  earth.  He  who  can  devise  new 
methods  of  mitigating  pain,  or  of  lengthening  by  a 
few  short  years  the  span  of  life  upon  earth,  is 
always  greeted  with  acclaim  and  crowned  with  the 
best  honour  a  grateful  generation  can  offer.  The 
Spirit  of  revelation,  in  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ, 
makes  men  masters  of  pain  and  death.  If  the 
Saviour,  who  is  extolled  by  these  inward  interpreta- 
tions, invented  no  anodyne.  He  brought  compensations 
which  "still  outweigh  the  heaviest  affliction.  If  He 
does  not  at  once  abolish  the  cross,  he  links  it  with 
an  incorruptible  crown.  If  He  does  not  at  once 
bring  to  His  followers  the  promise  of  a  translation, 
akin  to  that  of  Enoch  or  Elijah,  He  makes  men  who 
know  the  best  joy  of  living  to  realise  that  to  die  is 
gain, — a  persuasion  to  which  hitherto  the  most 
virtuous  men  have  been  strangers.  In  this  Jesus 
stands  alone,  and  vindicates  His  name  on  earth 
as  the  only-begotten  of  His  Father,  the  author  of 
benign  destinies  which  lie  beyond  the  grave.  "  Most 
gladly  therefore  will  I  glory  in  my  infirmities," 
exclaimed  the  apostle,  "  that  the  power  of  Christ 
may   rest  upon  me."     The  Man  of  Sorrows  trans- 


222  THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 

figured  the  sorrow  which  beset  the  fainting  flesh, 
fostered  a  new  order  of  heroism  in  human  Hfe,  and 
taught  a  rare  secret  of  triumph  in  death  ;  and  this 
through  the  Spirit,  who  blends  with  mortal  frailty  the 
genius  of  an  ever-living  and  victorious  personality. 
The  glory  of  Jesus  came  down  to  change  a  scene  of 
brutal  violence  and  blood,  and  put  a  celestial  sky  over 
the  sinking  form  of  Stephen,  for  he  was  a  man  "  full 
of  faith,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  A  sufferer,  without 
such  illumination,  would  have  been  absorbed  by  his 
own  undeserved  distress,  but  this  sufferer  outside  the 
gates,  saw  the  victim  of  an  earlier  tragedy  standing 
in  light  and  majesty  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Hence- 
forth patience,  meekness,  fortitude,  fidelity  became 
irradiated  with  new  dignity,  for  the  Son  of  Man 
Himself  was  glorified  before  the  eyes  of  those  to 
whom  the  Spirit,  through  these  manifold  graces, 
was  ever  unveiling  His  presence.  In  every  death- 
scene,  from  which  fear  is  dispelled,  Jesus  is  manifested 
as  the  Conqueror  who  has  destroyed  the  power  of 
death,  and  the  Spirit  in  His  name  continues  the 
victory  through  all  generations.  It  is  true  saints 
are  sometimes  depressed  by  the  shadows  of  the 
falling  night,  and  the  last  scene  is  not  always  one 
of  spiritual  transport,  but  Jesus  is  glorified  wherever 
the  Spirit  shows  through  the  solemn  gloom,  however 
dimly,  the  fair  form  of  Him  who  holds  the  keys  to 
every  prison-house.  The  apostle  desired  to  glorify 
Jesus  by  his  death,  and  such  an  end  is  possible  to 
all  men  through  the  Spirit,  whose  unfailing  comforts 
add  new  splendour  to  Christ's  name. 

How  futile  it  is  to  ask  from  men  the  homage 
due  to  Jesus  Christ  till  the  Spirit  comes  into  their 
hearts  !     The  vision  of  our  Lord  crowned  with  glory 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   VINDICATION 


and  honour,  together  with  all  the  evangelical  ex- 
periences of  which  it  is  the  keynote,  is  a  fruit  of 
the  Pentecost  in  whose  encircling  influences  every 
man  must  receive  his  baptism.  We  may  press  upon 
a  neighbour's  acceptance  dogmatic  creeds  of  unim- 
peachable soundness,  and  preach  the  authority  of 
the  Church ;  we  may  use  our  best  intelligence 
in  clearing  away  the  stumbling-blocks,  which 
sometimes  obstruct  the  path  of  the  understanding  ; 
we  may  free  the  channels  of  the  reason  from  the 
misconceptions  by  which  they  are  clogged  ;  but 
till  the  mystic  Spirit  broods  over  the  chaos  men 
can  only  know  Christ  after  the  flesh.  It  needed  a 
Divine  afflatus  to  enable  the  contemporaries  of  the 
apostles  to  rise  higher  than  the  mass  of  their 
unbelieving  neighbours.  In  the  sanctified  heart  a 
mirror  is  fixed  which  reflects  the  power,  majesty, 
and  worship  of  Jesus  in  heaven.  The  most  highly 
burnished  and  costly  mirror  will  not  reflect  if  it  is 
shut  up  in  a  darkened  room.  Cultivate  the  open 
mind.  Hail  the  uprising  of  the  Spirit  within.  Be 
accessible  to  His  finer  methods  of  revelation.  Greet 
with  genial  response  the  successive  disclosures  of 
grace  and  power.  It  is  by  the  Spirit  Jesus  is  glori- 
fied, and  we  can  only  honour  our  King  aright  if  His 
unseen  interpreter  is  within  us.  We  are  dependent 
upon  this  ethereal  breath  from  the  unseen,  which  may 
sometimes  stream  unawares  into  the  soul  ;  and  we 
must  extol  the  Spirit,  so  that  we  may  have  power 
to  extol  the  Christ  He  brings  to  us. 

It  was  because  John  was  "in  the  Spirit  on  the 
Lord's  day"  that  those  sublime  apocalypses  visited 
his  rapt  mind  which  had  for  the  centre  of  their 
interest   the    Lamb    and     His    redeeming    exploits. 


224  THE   MINISTRY  OF  VINDICATION 

And  when  our  minds  are  absorbed  by  the  strange 
influences  which  touch  us,  we  shall  see  visions, 
more  or  less  clear,  of  the  celestial  transfiguration. 
In  the  early  pages  of  the  Apocalypse  the  Spirit 
appears  under  the  symbol  of  the  seven  lamps  of 
fire,  but  the  symbol  fades  from  the  later  pages,  for 
the  Spirit  passes  into  the  life  of  the  Churches 
on  earth  and  becomes  the  hidden  spring  of  the 
faith  and  worship  they  offer  to  the  Son.  Let  us 
confess  our  dependence  on  these  fine,  ever-present 
inward  ministries,  for  we  cannot  honour  the  Son 
if  the  Spirit  be  grieved  or  withdraw  His  influence 
from  our  hearts.  Where  He  is  not,  men  inevitably 
do  less  than  justice  to  the  character,  work,  and 
high  estate  of  the  Lord  who  ransomed  them, 
accounting  the  blood  by  which  they  are  sanctified 
a  common  thing. 


XII 

THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

"  Who  abolished  death  and  brought  Hfc  and  incorriiption 
to  light  by  the  gospel." — 2  Tim.  i.  10. 

The  doctrine  of  human  immortality  is  the  common 
heritage  of  all  races.  It  is  widely  diffused  as  the 
atmosphere,  and  perhaps  no  tribe,  however  rude  in 
civilisation  and  secluded  from  the  rest  of  the  world, 
has  been  quite  destitute  of  the  belief  in  it.  It  is  true 
that,  here  and  there,  an  individual  may  reject  it,  just 
as  he  may  mistrust  some  of  the  less  tangible  in- 
fluences which  are  knit  into  the  scheme  of  nature, 
but  it  has  its  roots  in  a  primal  instinct,  and  no 
community  or  nation  has  ever  been  possessed  by 
the  temper  which  denies  the  unseen  life.  And  yet 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  the  deep,  abiding  essentials 
of  the  belief  were  created  by  Jesus  Christ,  or  at  least 
brought  into  view  by  His  work,  witness,  and  personal 
history. 

No  critical  reader  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures 
can  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  down  to  the  times  of  the 
prophets  the  doctrine  is  treated  with  a  curious  reserve, 
if,  indeed,  it  is  not  passed  by  in  silence.     From  this 

16 


226  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

reserve  it  has  been  argued  that  the  Bible  does  not 
recognise  the  natural  or  inherent  immortality  of  the 
human  soul.  The  term  "  natural,"  or  "  inherent  im- 
mortality," however,  belongs  to  an  order  of  ideas 
concerning  the  universe  which  has  been  obsolete  for 
the  last  half-century,  and  the  argument  is  worthless. 
Life  is  the  continuous  gift  of  an  immanent  God,  and 
not  constructed  by  an  artificer  once  for  all,  like  a 
piece  of  mechanism,  and  left  to  run  on  by  itself  with 
{q\v  interventions  for  readjustment,  till  at  last  the 
framework  which  holds  it  is  worn  out  by  friction. 
The  life  which  is  an  ever-repeated  gift  from  Him  who 
only  hath  immortality  may  be  as  unconditional  as 
the  life  which  is  presumed  to  have  in  the  quality 
of  its  natural  faculties  an  undefineable  guarantee  of 
endlessness. 

The  patriarchs  fulfilled  their  appointed  courses  and 
died  placid,  unfretful  deaths  with  an  unabated  faith 
in  the  Covenant  God  of  their  race,  attempting  no 
guess  whatever  at  the  severe  mystery  of  the  beyond 
— the  best  thing  they  could  do  under  the  circum- 
stances, and,  indeed,  the  only  thing.  It  is  not  for  us 
to  say  how  much  faith  in  the  hereafter  was  implicit 
in  this  imperturbable  temper  of  soul. 

Those  portions  of  the  Pentateuch  still  ascribed,  by 
all  but  the  most  destructive  critics,  to  the  authorship 
of  Moses  make  no  reference  to  the  grave  subject  with 
which  human  thought  had  everywhere  busied  itself 
In  the  fragmentary  teachings  which  have  come  down 
to  us  from  the  lips  or  the  pen  of  the  great  lawgiver 
no  attempt  is  made  to  lift  the  veil,  and  yet  in  the 
days  of  his  sojourn  in  Egypt  he  must  have  been 
familiar  not  only  with  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  but  with  that  also  of  the  resurrection  of 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  227 

the  body — a  tenet  much  more  limited  in  the  field 
of  its  acceptance.  Why  this  strange  and  studied 
reticence?  If  the  grotesque  forms  in  which  the 
doctrine  was  held  by  idolatrous  nations  repelled  the 
higher  instincts  and  sensibilities  of  the  inspired 
founder  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth,  he  might  surely 
have  revised  these  momentous  truths  and  have  expli- 
citly authorised  a  better  and  a  more  intelligent  faith. 

The  true  answer  is  probably  that  suggested  by 
Dr.  Charles  in  his  instructive  book  on  "Eschatology." 
A  clear,  well-defined  faith  in  God  and  a  true  appre- 
hension of  His  nature  must  precede  a  just  and  a 
reasonable  faith  in  human  immortality. 

It  does  not  need  any  wide  or  minute  survey  of 
the  religions  of  the  ancient  world  to  show  that  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  was  in  sad  need  of  recon- 
struction, and  that  the  reconstruction  could  only 
come  through  a  radical  improvement  in  the  world's 
ideas  concerning  God.  The  primeval  belief  had 
assumed  grotesque  and  extravagant  forms  which 
distressed  the  imagination  and  at  the  same  time 
involved  sinister  reflections  upon  the  supreme  power 
and  goodness  of  God. 

In  ancient  Egypt  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and 
its  reunion  with  the  body  in  a  future  resurrection 
were  made  contingent  upon  the  preservation  of  the 
fleshly  form  from  corruption  by  the  art  of  the 
embalmer.  Personal  immortality  was  not  thought 
of  as  the  immediate  gift  of  an  infinite  Being,  from 
whose  fiat  life,  in  all  its  types  and  gradations,  issued, 
but  as  conditioned  in  part  by  the  skill  of  the 
physician,  whose  work  preserved  skin  and  bone 
from  dissolution.  The  primitive  races  of  the  Nile 
valley  must    have   held    in    some  rough,  crude  way 


228  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

the  theory  of  the  modern  materiaHst  that  all  thought 
and  feeling  depend  upon  physical  structures  and 
that  mind  is  disabled,  if  not  annihilated,  when 
sundered  from  the  material  form  through  which  it 
has  been  accustomed  to  operate.  If  the  bodily  shape 
is  lost  the  "  Ka,"  or  spirit,  with  which  it  has  been 
identified,  must  pass  into  final  oblivion.  Such  ideas 
disparage  the  power  of  the  Almighty  God  and 
deprive  Him  of  His  unlimited  sovereignty  over  all 
life.  To  rectify  such  superstitions  it  was  needful  to 
bring  before  the  mind  thoughts  of  the  Eternal,  who 
hath  immortality  in  Himself  and  who  can  impart  the 
gift  to  body  or  mind  from  His  own  fulness,  according 
to  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will. 

The  Assyriologist  tells  us  that  amongst  the  earliest 
populations  of  the  Mesopotamian  plains,  the  state  of 
the  dead  was  conceived  of  in  pictures  which  were 
full  of  gloom  and  profound  distress.  For  virtuous 
and  degraded  alike  the  underworld  was  wrapped 
about  in  thick  darkness  and  dominated  by  universal 
pain.  The  possibility  of  reaching  a  state  of  spiritual 
beatitude  there  had  scarcely  entered  into  the  dream 
of  the  men  who  founded  those  imposing  civilisations. 
Perhaps  the  ruthless  warriors  who  moulded  the  strong, 
primitive  empires  transferred  to  this  mysterious 
hereafter  the  shadow  of  their  own  misdoing  upon 
earth.  Men  of  blood,  drunk  with  the  fanaticism  of 
the  sword,  made  many  and  cruel  gods  after  their 
own  likeness,  and  the  most  implacable  of  these 
truculent,  blight-breathing  gods  swayed  sceptres 
of  dominion  in  the  underworlds.  Neither  the 
Semite  nor  any  other  branch  of  the  human  race 
could  have  a  right  conception  of  the  life  beyond 
the  grave  till  he  had   learned  to  worship  a  holy,  a 


THE    NEW   IMMORTALITY  229 

righteous,  a  humane  God,  who  swayed  His  sceptre 
of  dominion  over  all  worlds.  Such  affrighting  ideas 
received  their  death-blow  when  John  saw  in  the 
hands  of  the  gracious  and  triumphant  Son  of  Man 
the  keys  of  the  grave  and  the  underworld. 

And  in  subsequent  centuries  this  weird  Babylonian 
view  of  immortality  projected    its  glooms   into  the 
religions  of  India  and  the  Far  East,  as  well  as  into 
those  of  Greece  and    Rome.     The  doctrine   of  the 
transmigration  of  souls,  with  many  purgatories  inter- 
posed   between    each    rebirth,   spread    far    and    near, 
filling  the  popular  imagination  with  endless,  appall- 
ing dramas  of  changing  destiny.     In  the  absence  of 
a    benign,    personal,    supreme    God    the    scheme    of 
retribution   became  a  rigid  revolving   mechanism  of 
steel,  from  which  all  possibilities  of  pity  and  forgive- 
ness were  excluded.     To  a  solitary  hero  or  moralist 
once  in   a  century,  death   might   mean   gain,  if  the 
doctrine    of   reward    and    punishment    should    prove 
itself  true ;  but  for  the  many  there  was  no  outlook 
from  death  towards  a  land  of  promise  but  the  descent 
into  inevitable  woe.     Immortality  under  such  condi- 
tions was  a  fate  to  be  shunned  rather  than  a  prospect 
which   could   attract   and   allure.     And   the  sense  of 
sin,  when  it  became  strong  within  the  human  con- 
science, seemed   to  give  verisimilitude  to  these  pre- 
vailing views  of  the  life  after  death.     Such  a  burden 
did  this  idea  of  countless,  ever-revolving  epochs  of 
penalised  existence,  which  was  the  old  substitute  for 
immortality  become,  that  men  began  to  look  upon 
endless  being  as  an  infinite  curse  and  aspire  after  a 
dreamless  quiescence  which  should   effect  a  release 
by  dissolving  the  normal  consciousness.     New  ideas 
had    to   be   put   at   the  roots   of  this   belief  in    the 


230  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

immortality  of  the  soul   before   it  could  become  a 
gospel  with  music  in  its  accents. 

In   our   own    time   this   doctrine   of  immortality, 
with  no  God  of  love  and  power   behind  and  beneath 
it,  which  sickened  the  ancient  world,  is  being  preached 
anew  by  a  group  of  spiritualists,  who  have  renounced 
the  Christian  faith  ;  and  some  of  us  shudder  at  the 
message.      A  few  years  ago  a  book,  by  one  of  the 
leaders    in    psychic    research,    was  published,   called 
"  The  Survival  of  the  Personality  after  Death."     The 
chapters  classify  some  of  the  more  obscure  processes 
of  the  human    mind,  furnish  a    new    and    ingenious 
vocabulary  in  mental  science,  and  whilst  inconclusive 
in  argument,  are  of  deep  and  inexhaustible  interest. 
The    atmosphere    of    the   studies   brought   together 
envelopes   and   saturates  the  sensitive  reader  like  a 
cold,   clammy,    depressing   mist,  and    refuses    to   be 
dispersed.     It  produces  continuous  nightmare.    The 
writer    more    than     hints    that    human    personality 
persists  after  death,  and  also  finds  itself  in  contact 
with  kindred  personalities,  but  at  the  same  time  does 
not   acquire    a   higher    consciousness    of    the    sove- 
reign   presence    of    God    than    men  possess   in   the 
present    world.      When    the    veil    of    the    flesh    is 
removed,  there  is  no  access  into  a  Divine  sanctuary. 
This    is    a   reversion    to  the   old    heathen   notion  of 
the  after-life,  rid  perhaps  of  some  of  its  grotesque- 
ness.     Such  a  scheme  of  the  unseen  universe  leaves 
death  armed  with  its  old  terrors.     What  a  horrible 
idea   that   as   soon  as  we   have   crossed   the   mortal 
threshold    a    spirit-world    awaits    us,    where,   bereft 
of  the   presence   and    controlling  providential  sove- 
reignty of  the  Almighty  God,  we  may  find  ourselves 
plunged    into    promiscuous    communities  of   disem- 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  231 

bodied  beings !  Imagine  a  pure,  refined,  sensitive 
human  spirit,  after  its  escape  from  the  fleshy  taber- 
nacle, jostled  against  the  unclean  spirits  of  Herod, 
Nero,  Diocletian,  Genghis  Khan,  Duke  Alva,  Spanish 
Inquisitors,  Bashi  Bazouks,  Kurds,  Cossacks,  Chinese 
Boxers,  and  Indian  Thugs  whose  religion  was  murder. 
The  mere  thought  of  the  risks  lurking  in  a  for- 
tuitous immortality  makes  the  blood  run  cold.  We 
deprecate  the  unknown  possibilities  it  involves  and 
turn  away  with  loathing.  Immortality  without  God, 
the  God  made  known  by  Jesus  Christ,  is  abhorrent. 
When  John  was  in  Patmos,  tasting  the  fury  of  the 
oppressor,  he  felt  that  the  city  of  his  inspired 
hopes  must  have  a  throne  at  its  centre,  with  pro- 
tecting walls  and  guarded  gates ;  or  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem  would  be  no  better  than  Pagan  Rome.  It 
is  no  comfort  for  us  to  keep  the  belief  in  personal 
immortality  if  we  have  to  give  up  God.  Unless 
He  make  ready  the  house  for  us,  when  we  leave  the 
fleshy  tabernacle,  death  may  prove  an  illimitable 
catastrophe.  The  doctrine  of  God  needed  its  re- 
construction before  men  could  be  inspired  with  the 
hope  of  a  glad  and  well-ordered   immortality. 

The  endless  life  is  a  burden  of  tremendous  import, 
which  we  can  take  with  confidence  only  from  the 
hand  of  an  Omnipotent  Friend.  We  should  be  slow 
to  welcome  some  gifts,  if  oflered  to  us,  because  we 
lack  implicit  confidence  in  the  motive  of  the  strangers 
who  would  fain  bestow  them.  He  who  sits  at  the 
table  of  a  treacherous  savage  suspects  the  hospitality 
which  is  lavished  upon  him,  and  tastes  with  fearfulness 
the  outspread  viands  and  the  drink  with  which  his 
cup  is  filled.  Men  have  sometimes  tempted  with 
costly  and   seductive  toys  those  whom   they  wished 


232  THE   NEW    IMMORTALITY 

to  ruin.  In  their  mutual  commerce,  nations  do  not 
always  exchange  commodities  which  make  for  the 
stable  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  people.  The 
hand  offered  in  apparent  friendship  and  goodwill 
may  hold  within  its  grasp  the  secret  of  a  fatal 
revenge.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the  Popes  of  the 
Middle  Ages  used  to  wear  a  ring,  within  which  a 
deadly  poison  was  concealed,  and  when  he  pressed 
it  deeply  into  the  flesh  of  a  hand  clasped  within  his 
own,  it  became  a  swift  sentence  of  doom  upon  the 
man  ostensibly  honoured  with  this  familiar  courtesy. 
What  kind  of  an  immortality  is  it  which  is  offered 
to  us  ?  Whose  is  the  hand  stretched  out  in  the  dark- 
ness to  tend  it?  Does  Nature  bestow  immortality 
or  God,  because,  according  to  some  men's  interpreta- 
tions. Nature  is  not  always  kind  ? 

As  a  first  step  to  the  new  unveiling  of  immortality 
we  are  told  that  Christ  abolished  death,  or  made  it 
inoperative,  as  the  words  may  be  rendered.  The 
preacher  of  a  secular  ethic  asserts  that  death  is  a  part 
of  the  natural  order  and  ought  to  be  faced  with 
fortitude.  x'\nd  sometimes  a  man,  not  in  anywise 
embruted  by  sin,  meets  it  without  a  misgiving,  and 
at  the  same  time  confesses  no  obligation  to  Jesus 
the  Redeemer.  We  wonder  at  the  calmness  and 
good- humour  with  which  Socrates  drank  his  cup  of 
hemlock  and  at  the  high  mettle  with  which  some 
men,  not  distinctively  religious  in  spirit,  face  the  end 
of  life.  We  are  amazed  at  the  impassivity  with  which 
tens  of  thousands  of  Japanese  throw  away  their  lives 
in  an  outburst  of  loyalty  and  patriotism.  Perhaps  the 
courage  of  the  man  who  is  without  a  formulated 
Christian  faith  may  be  inspired  by  a  vague  sense  of 
the  benignity  of  the  cosmic  order, — a  subconscious 


THE    NEW   IMMORTALITY  233 

temper  of  mind  which  may  contain  not  a  little  faith 
in  solution.  Death,  it  is  said,  was  in  the  world 
before  man  came  upon  the  scene,  and  he  is 
woven  into  the  same  web  with  trees  whose  blossoms 
fade,  with  birds  which  perish  in  the  cold,  and  with 
insects  which  die  by  myriads  without  a  sign.  But 
what  may  be  normal  in  some  kingdoms  of  nature 
becomes  tragically  abnormal  to  man  when  he 
acquires  speech,  reason,  imagination,  the  instinct 
for  the  infinite,  and  awakes  up  to  the  grand  fact  that 
having  been  made  in  the  image  of  God  he  stands  in 
peculiarly  intimate  relations  to  the  Eternal,  and 
above  all  when  he  becomes  haunted  by  the  sense  of 
sin.  Leaves  and  flowers,  birds  and  animals  have 
presumably  no  guilty  memories  to  harass  and  depress 
them.  Sin  puts  a  new  aspect  upon  death  and 
invests  it  with  a  portentous  fatality  in  human 
fortunes.  If  unfallen  man  had  been  destined  to  pass 
through  changes  corresponding  to  physical  death, 
his  normal  consciousness  of  God  might  have  made 
such  a  crisis  into  a  translation.  A  vague  sense  of 
sin  bred  the  glooms  and  shrouding,  terror-haunted 
shadows  of  the  Babylonian  underworld,  and  sin  arms 
death  with  a  noxious  sting  wherever  a  soul  becomes 
burdened  by  a  sense  of  demerit  and  transgression. 
Man  might  have  died  without  any  sign  of  trepidation 
or  foreboding,  if  his  animal  sleep  had  continued  un- 
broken. When  rational  beings  find  out  how  far  they 
have  gone  in  a  downward  path,  the  terror  of  death 
starts  up  within  them,  and  is  in  no  sense  a  creation 
of  theology.  The  heir  of  immortality  trembles  at 
the  thought  of  his  inalienable  heritage.  But  in  re- 
deeming  us  Jesus  took  away  the  power  of  death. 
The  Cross  declared  the  truth  of  man's  immortality,  for 


234  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

if  man  had  been  one  with  the  grass  of  the  field  Jesus 
would  not  have  set  himself,  at  such  a  cost,  to  remove 
a  blight  on  the  bloom  of  an  hour.  His  holy  passion 
inscribed  a  new  value  on  human  life.  By  destroying 
sin  he  changed  a  dark,  soul-withering,  wrathful  under- 
world into  a  realm  filled  with  peace,  forgiveness, 
goodwill,  and  the  fruits  of  righteousness. 

In  speaking  of  the  life  and  immortality  brought  to 
light  by  the  gospel,  the  apostle  does  not  limit  his 
thought  to  the  physical  resurrection  of  our  Lord, 
and  the  human  destinies  of  which  it  was  the  earnest. 
He  had  in  mind  the  deeper  principles,  which  found 
their  expression  in  that  history.  As  far  as  he  himself 
was  concerned  the  substantial  genuineness  of  the 
narratives  admitted  of  no  possible  doubt.  He  was 
a  personal  witness,  and  had  spoken  face  to  face  with 
others  whose  experiences  were  more  complete  than 
his  own,  for  they  had  been  with  the  Lord  from  the 
beginning.  Men  dispute  the  evidence  to-day.  In  a 
temper  which  is  not  quite  reasonable  they  ask  for 
contemporary  proof  and  corroboration,  other  than 
that  offered  by  the  disciples  themselves.  For  such 
an  unexampled  miracle  they  demand  more  than  the 
kind  of  evidence,  which  is  enough  to  ratify  salient 
events  in  the  history  of  nations.  To  those  who 
dispute  the  proofs  furnished  by  the  Evangelists,  and 
confirmed  by  the  unbroken  faith  of  the  early 
Churches,  we  cannot  yield  up  our  ground.  Neither 
is  it  necessary  for  us,  as  devout  believers  to  pass 
judgment  upon  the  mode  of  the  resurrection,  or 
the  special  properties  of  the  body  which  issued  from 
the  tomb.  Theories  of  the  resurrection  are  held  at  the 
present  time,  ranging  through  many  shades,  from  the 
grossly  corporeal  which   regards  the  crucified  body 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  235 

as  vivified  in  its  identic  substance  to  a  tenuously 
spiritual,  which  verges  on  a  denial  of  the  place  of  the 
sepulchre  in  the  story  and  the  reality  of  the  nail- 
prints.  Some  of  these  theories  perhaps  involve 
questions  of  philosophy  which  are  not  of  the  essence 
of  faith.  The  disciple  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  who 
believes  that  the  outward  world  is  created  by  the 
percipiency  of  the  mind  itself,  may  have  a  perfectly 
valid  faith  in  the  resurrection  ;  whilst,  of  course,  no 
one  would  think  of  doubting  the  orthodoxy  of  a 
noble  Anglican  theologian,  the  late  Dr.  Lathom,  who, 
in  his  last  book,  suggests  that  the  form  assumed  by 
the  risen  Lord  had  such  properties  that  it  passed 
through  the  textures  of  the  grave-clothes  and  the 
napkin  wound  about  the  head,  and  left  them  un- 
disturbed. New  theories  of  the  ultimate  atom,  from 
which  matter  is  built  up,  will  affect  the  way  in  which 
the  imagination  conceives  this  subject.  He  who 
believes  that  chemical  elements  are  combined  from 
electrons  must  think  of  this  problem  in  a  way  that 
may  almost  seem  to  verge  upon  the  idea  of  a 
spiritual  resurrection,  for  the  grosser  aspect  of 
visibility  is  eliminated  from  the  mind-picture.  Per- 
haps Paul  would  not  have  debated  such  topics, 
since  they  involve  the  postulates  of  a  philosophy, 
with  which  he  refused  to  concern  himself.  His 
thoughts  take  us  into  depths  which  underlie  each 
and  all  of  the  possible  methods,  by  which  the 
resurrection   may  have  been  brought  to  pass. 

Jesus  Christ  brought  immortality  to  light  by  set- 
ting in  the  brightness  of  a  cloudless  noon,  the  faith- 
ful, unchanging,  all-begetting  and  all-sustaining  love 
upon  which  every  order  of  finite  life  rests.  His 
manifestation  of  the  mysteries  beyond  the  veil  was 


236  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

closely  identified  with  His  manifestation  of  the 
Father  Himself.  His  own  incomparable  Sonship, 
antedating  as  it  did  the  sentient  universe,  was  an 
infallible  sign  of  the  Infinite,  Eternal  love,  and  His 
days,  in  their  inconceivable  sum,  were  a  record  of 
blessed  and  unceasing  recipiency  from  the  primal 
fount  of  Being.  The  doctrine  of  personal  immortality 
was  inseparable  from  the  sense  our  Lord  possessed 
of  His  own  complete  Sonship.  The  Divine  Father- 
hood, to  which  His  filial  consciousness  was  a 
perennial  response,  the  mystery  of  mysteries  without 
morning  dawn  or  evening  twilight,  was  an  indestruc- 
tible pledge  of  His  own  endless  life  ;  for  if  it  had  been 
otherwise  the  love,  by  which  God  named  His  own 
essential  nature,  began  to  be  at  some  specific  point  of 
time,  and  was  not  from  everlasting  to  everlasting.  In 
bearing  His  unique  witness  to  this  love  Jesus  postu- 
lates an  Eternal  "  I  "  and  an  Eternal  "  Thou."  The 
first  essential  of  the  Divine  nature  is  that  it  must 
love,  and  there  can  be  no  love  without  responsive  and 
interacting  personalities.  Our  own  instinctive  horror 
of  continual  solitude  arises  from  the  fact  that  it 
excludes  love,  and  in  a  nature  of  eternal  benignity 
there  must  be  something  which  corresponds  to  this 
same  instinct  in  us. 

And  the  personality  of  the  Son,  which  could  not 
be  finally  subject  to  death,  includes  and  involves  the 
indestructible  personality  of  His  followers.  His  own 
immortal  life,  visibly  asserted  in  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead,  comprehended  theirs  in  some  humbler  form. 
"  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also."  He  demonstrated 
immortality  by  demonstrating  the  love  of  which  He 
was  the  subject  before  the  cosmic  dawn,  the  supreme 
witness  in  time,  and  of  which  His  cross  was  the  most 


THE    NEW   IMMORTALITY  237 


impressive  and    uttermost  assurance  to  a   redeemed 
universe. 

But  that  Divine  Fatherhood,  in  which  the  assurance 
of  immortality  was  rooted,  not  only  satisfied  itself  by 
imparting  the  gift  of  deathless  being  to  the  Eternal 
Son,  but  by  making  those  recovered  to  filial  rela- 
tionship through  His  sacrificial  work,  sharers  in  the 
gift.  Jesus  Christ  gave  to  the  world  new  pledges  of 
immortality  by  giving  it  a  new  God,  a  sin-forgiving 
God,  a  God  who  cancelled  the  just  condemnation 
incurred  by  transgressors,  and  made  the  reconciled 
face  of  His  Fatherhood  to  shine  upon  them  once 
more.  Such  a  God  became  an  argument  for  the 
future  life  of  invincible  force.  The  daily  ministry  of 
Jesus  Christ,  not  to  speak  of  His  sacrifice  only, 
vindicated  the  ideal  of  an  endless  life  by  making  life 
worth  living,  not  for  threescore  years  and  ten,  but 
for  countless  ages.  There  can  be  no  true  and  inviting 
disclosure  of  immortality  for  men  who  are  under 
the  ban  of  a  broken  law,  apart  from  a  vicarious  and 
effectual  redemption.  It  is  not  in  human  nature  to 
desire  a  prolonged  personal  consciousness  unless 
deliverance  from  the  burden  of  sin  is  at  hand,  and 
the  Divine  Fatherhood  itself  would  be  dishonoured 
by  such  an  offer  to  the  race.  The  starveling  of  the 
slum  would  not  care  to  live  an  endless  life,  in  the 
foul  welter,  where  for  the  moment  he  finds  himself. 
The  victim  of  a  tormenting  disease  does  not  want 
his  life  to  run  on  for  five  hundred  years,  if  no  allevi- 
ation is  possible.  The  prisoner  chained  in  a  dungeon, 
whose  mind  is  sinking  into  blankness  or  fretting 
itself  into  insanity,  does  not  desire  for  himself  an 
antediluvian  longevity,  even  though  he  can  get  a 
glimpse   of  snow-peaks   and  blue   lakes  through  the 


238  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

loophole  of  his  dungeon.  And  the  case  is  aggra- 
vated when  remorse  mixes  itself  with  torment  and 
the  reflection  comes  back  that  such  disabilities  are 
the  wages  of  past  wrong-doing.  Immortality  under 
a  sentence  of  wrath,  if  at  last  inevitable,  must  at 
least  be  preceded  by  the  hope  and  promise  of  an 
immortality  in  the  light  of  God's  beatific  presence, 
or  the  prospect  is  as  repulsive  and  terrorising  as  that 
of  the  Babylonian  underworld.  If  immortality  is 
preached  to  us  as  a  gospel,  it  must  be  under  con- 
ditions which  admit  of  progress  towards  perfection. 
Endless  life,  elsewhere  than  before  God's  approving 
face,  might  well  be  a  burden  too  grievous  for  human 
strength.  Salvation  through  the  Cross  must  precede 
the  great  disclosure,  if  we  are  to  welcome  it  with 
gratitude  and  anticipation.  It  is  fitting  that  the 
hand  which  carried  in  its  touch  healing,  emancipation, 
cleansing,  should  draw  aside  the  veil  cast  over  the 
vast  incalculable  future  of  the  human  soul.  From  the 
Saviour  we  may  accept  this  gift  without  fear  or 
misgiving,  and  we  may  well  hesitate  to  welcome  it 
from  another. 

In  manifesting  the  love  of  the  Eternal  Father, 
Jesus  brought  into  view  a  foundation-reason  for  the 
doctrine  of  human  immortality,  which  placed  it 
beyond  the  range  of  assault.  We  sometimes  meet 
with  that  most  forlorn  of  all  human  beings — a  father 
who  has  outlived  his  last  surviving  child.  What  a 
monument  of  helplessness  !  Death  is  the  mockery 
of  love,  vexing  its  fine  sensibilities  with  unhealable 
torment ;  and  the  triumph  of  death  is  the  casting  down 
of  love  from  its  high  throne  of  power.  Alas  !  for  the 
poor  souls,  rich  and  resplendent  though  they  be  in 
outward    circumstance,    who    know    the   joy    of    the 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  239 

parent  for  a  few  short  days  only.  A  lady  once  wept 
herself  blind  because  the  children  strangely  bestowed 
upon  her  by  an  inscrutable  fate,  drew  the  breath  of 
life  for  a  few  hours  only.  The  instinct  of  parental 
love  was  thwarted,  exasperated  into  pain,  dissi- 
pated into  dust  and  futility,  by  this  implacable  lot. 
Such  bitterness  and  vexation  might  suffice  to  turn  a 
palace  into  a  prison.  The  Eternal  and  Omnipotent 
Father,  who  begets  generations  of  brief-lived,  perish- 
able children,  is  a  riddle  in  the  art  of  self-mockery 
and  torment  no  ingenuity  can  solve.  In  such  a 
God  of  contradictions  we  cannot  believe.  Is  He, 
forsooth,  the  sceptred  sovereign  of  a  far-extending 
Ramah,  riven  with  the  wails  of  perpetual  bereave- 
ment? If  this  be  the  universe  in  which  He  reigns, 
let  it  be  draped  in  sackcloth.  In  spite  of  our 
blemishes  God  loves  us,  and  loves  us  as  abiding 
persons,  not  as  the  raw  material  for  some  future 
absorption  process  which  shall  obliterate  every  linea- 
ment belonging  either  to  body  or  soul.  Love,  where- 
ever  it  is  strong,  makes  for  life,  and  for  the  endless 
prevalence  of  life  in  all  its  personal  hues  and  aspects, 
and  we  cannot  stop  short  of  affirming  less  than  this 
when  we  are  dealing  with  the  love  which  is  Divine. 
In  the  great  home  of  light  to  which  God's  children 
are  to  be  gathered  the  lowliest  finite  personality  is 
necessary,  through  all  the  forthcoming  ages,  to  fill  the 
largeness  of  God's  heart,  as  well  as  to  satisfy  the 
instincts  of  kindred  personalities  created  in  His 
similitude. 

God's  love  is  such  that  He  thought  of  us  before  we 
came  into  being,  "  chose  us  in  Jesus  Christ "  ;  and 
this  is  chiefly  what  the  apostle  means  by  foreknow- 
ledge and  predestination.     We,  who  are  so  imperfect. 


240  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

like  to  live  with  the  pictures  of  our  loved  ones  in 
daily  view,  and  find  a  subdued  sweetness  in  calling 
back  the  forms  of  those  who  have  long  since  faded 
from  our  earthly  horizon.  In  eternity  past  God  has 
dwelt  with  the  pictures  of  the  redeemed  before  His 
thought,  and  if  His  love  be  such  that  He  anticipates 
their  characteristics  before  existence  entered  upon  its 
birth-stage,  after  they  have  once  come  into  being, 
surely  He  will  not  suffer  them  to  be  dissolved  back 
into  nothingness.  In  revealing  God  as  a  God  of  love, 
and  especially  of  the  love  which  sets  itself  to  redeem 
from  condemnation  and  abolish  death,  Jesus  gives 
us  new  underworlds,  from  which  the  thick  night 
has  passed  away,  and  where  the  faithful  dead  are 
cheered  by  the  promise  of  return  to  nobler  and 
sublimated  forms  of  the  old  life.  Jesus  brought 
life  and  incorruption  to  light  by  showing  that  within 
the  lovingkindness  of  the  Most  High  lie  the  springs 
from  which  the  gifts  of  a  manifold  and  perfect  life 
shall  issue.  Our  own  noblest  affection  compels  us  to 
cling  to  personality,  and  all  the  associations  which 
have  been  lifted  into  sacredness  through  its  touch. 
A  faded  rose-leaf,  a  useless  book,  an  old-fashioned 
bit  of  needlework,  a  fractured  photograph,  a  child's 
first  present,  bits  of  ugly  furniture  are  treasured, 
although  they  lack  intrinsic  value.  They  have  been 
polarised  into  sacredness,  for  they  are  links  with 
vanished  personalities.  Love  can  scarcely  bear  the 
obliteration  of  a  dust-grain  which  has  grown  into 
a  memento.  And  it  is  the  law  of  Divine,  no  less 
than  of  human  love.  "  And  this  is  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  me,  that  of  all  which  He  hath  given  me,  I 
should  lose  nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  at  the 
last   day."      The   love   which    watches     over   erring 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  241 

children    redeems,   and    redeems   with    incorruptible 
things  into  an  incorruptible  life. 

Immortality  was  bound  up  with  the  doctrine 
taught  by  Jesus  Christ,  because  it  is  the  deepest 
impulse  of  Fatherhood  to  bestow  life,  and  to  be 
always  enlarging  and  enriching  it  with  ever-repeated 
gifts.  From  his  own  sure,  far-reaching,  inexhaustible 
consciousness  the  Master  preached  a  love  which 
lives  through  an  unresting  bestow ment  of  bounties 
upon  others,  and  which,  by  the  sheer  spontaneity 
of  its  own  essential  qualities,  must  needs  be  always 
giving.  Such  a  view  of  that  love,  which  is  the  true 
fountain  of  being,  obviously  excludes  the  idea  that 
death  has  final  power  to  contravene  or  cancel  any 
of  the  properties  which  make  for  the  permanence 
of  human  life.  The  spiritual  history  of  our  Lord, 
stretching  as  it  did  into  the  impenetrable  dimness 
of  the  past,  was  an  unassailable  witness  to  this  truth, 
for  was  He  not  begotten  before  all  worlds  ?  and  had 
not  the  things  He  had  thought  and  felt,  known 
and  done,  been  carried  out  in  virtue  of  an  infinite 
and  endless  gift  of  love  ?  His  own  mission  amongst 
men  was  true  to  the  mysterious  experiences  of  the 
past,  for  did  he  not  go  about  lifting  burdens  from  the 
souls  and  bodies  of  the  distressed,  and  enriching 
and  enlarging  with  nobler  gifts  the  life  of  those 
he  was  able  to  touch  ?  The  highest  life  is  irrevo- 
cable, if,  indeed,  it  flows  from  the  Almighty's  longing 
to  give,  and  death  is  a  brief  eclipse,  not  a  dread 
sunset,  followed  by  black,  unbroken,  age-long  night. 
The  conscious  existence,  obscured  for  the  moment 
by  the  passing  of  the  spirit,  cannot  fail  of  after- 
stages  of  succession,  since  it  is  bestowed  by  Him 
who   only   hath   immortality.     It  is    destined  to    be 

17 


242  THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY 

given  back,  and  to  be  always  given  afresh.  It  is 
in  harmony  with  this  view  that  the  apostle  declares 
in  his  famous  resurrection-argument,  "  God  giveth 
it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  Him,"  and  in  the 
manifold  evolutions  of  the  future  the  gift  may  be 
varied,  enlarged,  enriched  and  ennobled.  It  is  from 
this  point  of  view  we  must  think  of  the  mode  of 
immortality.  The  organic  secret  is  not  put  into  a 
man  once  and  for  all.  The  use  of  such  a  word  as 
"  inherency  "  is  misleading,  and  obscures  the  thought 
that  it  is  a  living,  ever-repeated,  perpetual  gift.  The 
conscious  lives  we  possess  in  the  present  world  are 
not  mere  pieces  of  delicate  mechanism  adjusted 
and  left  to  work  through  some  psychic  mainspring 
which  resists  friction,  and  must  outlast  the  flesh. 
Such  a  scheme  of  vitalistic  clockwork  would  not 
satisfy  the  longing  of  the  eternal  heart  to  be  always 
giving.  The  life  which  is  incorruptible  is  made  up 
of  a  series  of  countless  gifts,  conveyed  through  the 
power  and  indwelling  presence  of  the  Most  High. 
In  the  world  to  come  there  will  be  processes  of 
continuous  re-creation. 

The  life  thus  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel 
includes  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  for  if  it  were 
otherwise  the  triumph  of  love  would  be  incomplete, 
human  personality  would  stand  forth  dismantled  of 
its  outward  form,  and  new  currency  would  be  given 
to  the  old  heresy  that  matter  has  something  within 
it  which  can  defy  a  holy  Sovereignty.  One  half  of 
life  is  intractable  to  God's  redemptive  processes  if  an 
important  fraction  of  it  is  to  be  finally  scrapped  and 
put  into  the  waste  heaps  of  the  charnel-house. 

The  Bible  cannot  do  otherwise  than  present  the 
future  life  to  us  in  pictures  and  similitudes.     It  puts 


THE   NEW   IMMORTALITY  243 

before    us    God-built,    shining     cities,    symbols     of 
defence  and  beauty  ;    realms  with  no  wasting   fever 
or    invading   sickness,  symbols  of  contentment  and 
exultant  strength  ;   mansions  and  banquets,  the  out- 
ward  signs  of  dignity  and   festive   fellowship.     But 
we  must  get  through  the  metaphors  to  the  final  truth 
which  awaits  us  when  we  have  reached  the  substance 
behind  the  symbol.     "  Believe  in  God  and  believe  in 
Me,"  said  the  Master,  as  the  dulness  of  the  disciples 
seemed    to    baffle    His    effort   to    give    them    further 
insight  into  the  life   upon  which    He  was  entering, 
and  whither  they  were  by  and  by  to  follow.     Immor- 
tality is  based  not  upon  the  faculties  conferred  upon 
us,  but  upon  the  being  and   character  of  God    and 
His  relationship  with  His  people.     Immortality  with- 
out God  is  a  curse  from  which  we  may  well  flee.    We 
cannot    desire  it,  for   it  is    immortality  without    the 
conditions  which  prompt  our  most  sacred  longings. 
Such  a  God  as  Jesus  makes  known  is  inseparable  from 
the  kind  of  immortality  that  can  attract  or  comfort. 
If  you  believe  in  the  one,  you  are  committed  to  be- 
lieve in  the  other.     Jesus  Christ  is  alone  in  His  power 
to  free  from  the  bondage  of  death  and  to  illuminate 
the  unknown  realms  to  which  we  are  pilgrims. 

The  sombre  death-scene  is  changed  by  the  revela- 
tion of  Christ  through  the  gospel.  The  best  of  the 
patriarchs  never  rose  to  a  higher  temper  than  that  of 
placid,  solemn  resignation  to  the  will  of  God.  They 
died  without  the  sense  of  triumph.  Their  gaze  turned 
to  the  coming  fortunes  of  their  children  in  the  land 
of  promise  rather  than  towards  the  dim  realms  into 
which  they  were  passing.  Stephen,  Paul,  and  the 
generation  which  caught  their  spirit,  anticipated  the 
time   of    departure   with    joy   and    eager   hope.     A 


244  THE   NEW    IMMORTALITY 

different  atmosphere  had  been  created,  and  over  the 
riot  of  violence  and  brutahty  the  Lover  of  human 
souls  hovered,  stretching  out  His  arms  to  receive 
disciples  into  the  fellowship  of  His  immortal  reign. 
The  kindling  of  these  new  hopes  had  made  a 
revolution.  It  is  true  saints  sometimes  suffer,  and  in 
their  last  days  pass  through  moods  of  fierce 
depression,  but  He  who  holds  the  keys  is  in  the 
shadows  of  the  background  and  the  desolation  passes 
as  His  footsteps  are  heard  moving  in  the  dread 
silences.  So  has  Jesus  changed  the  outlook  for  all 
who  accept  His  message  and  rest  upon  His  work. 
He  cannot  betray  our  hope. 

Near  a  small  Norman  town  there  is  a  stream 
which  local  superstition  has  invested  with  magic 
virtue.  It  is  said  that  whoever  drinks  of  its  waters 
will  come  back  to  end  his  life  at  Gisors.  Many  a 
conscript,  on  his  last  night  at  home,  has  bowed  to 
take  a  deep  draught  from  the  stream  and  has  then  been 
hurried  away  to  fight  in  wars  of  which  he  had  little 
understanding.  It  is  needless  to  say,  amidst  the 
fevers  of  the  tropics  and  on  the  fire-swept  battlefield 
he  has  enjoyed  no  greater  security  from  death  than 
his  comrades  of  other  provinces.  As  the  writer  who 
gives  the  tradition  says,  "  How  often  must  these 
smiling  waters  have  broken  faith !  "  Jesus  who 
abolishes  death  and  destroys  its  power  is  no  preacher 
of  vain  hopes.  He  does  not  beguile  us  with  a 
pathetic  romance.  He  knows  the  sure  foundations 
upon  which  immortality  rests,  and  He  has  verified 
His  own  message  in  those  inscrutable  realms  from 
which  we  shrink  back.  "  He  that  drinketh  of  the 
water  that  I  shall  give  him,  it  shall  be  in  him  a  well 
of  water,  springing  up  unto  everlasting  life." 


XIII 

ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF 
'•'And  He  marvelled  because  of  their  unbelief." — Mark  vi.  6. 

The  sense  of  surprise  is  always  excited  by  objects  to 
which  we  are  unused,  and  by  contact  with  habits  of 
life  which  diverge  from  the  norm  of  past  experience. 
If  the  explorer  of  unknown  lands  came  across  a  bit 
of  the  pre- Adamite  planet  with  saurians  wallowing  in 
the  swamps,  giant  bats  flapping  through  the  air,  and 
behemoths  crashing  through  the  forest — in  comparison 
with  which  the  hippopotamus  is  a  mere  poodle — he 
would  feel  himself  in  a  strange  world  and  be  filled 
with  wonder.  An  English  child  seeing  for  the  first 
time  flying  foxes,  forests  lit  with  phosphorescent 
fungi  as  for  some  ghostly  carnival,  tribesmen  burrow- 
ing in  the  soil  or  nesting  like  birds  in  the  branches  of 
trees,  would  think  himself  in  a  land  of  fable.  He  has 
been  cradled  in  other  surroundings.  The  lithe  Malay 
youth  who  is  ready  to  dive  under  the  keel  of  an 
ocean  steamer  for  a  small  silver  coin,  or  the  South 
Sea  Islander,  who  is  as  much  at  home  a  couple  of 
fathoms  below  the  surface  of  the  lagoon  as  on  land, 
would  be  puzzled  if  set  to  perform  his  feats  in  the 

245 


246  ABNORMAL  UNBELIEF 

Dead  Sea,  where  the  buoyant  water  makes  diving 
difficult,  if  not  impossible.  He  would  assume  that  he 
had  been  brought  into  a  country  where  water  lacks 
its  common  properties.  When  the  traveller  through 
some  tropical  domain  is  vexed  and  angered  at  seeing 
women  sent  to  plough  the  fields,  whipped  into  burden- 
bearing,  bought  and  sold  like  cattle,  you  know  that 
he  has  been  brought  up  in  a  European  atmosphere  of 
chivalry ;  and  when  a  visitor  to  our  own  land  is 
amazed  at  seeing  a  man  give  up  his  seat  in  a  crowded 
train  to  a  woman,  money  spent  on  the  education  of 
daughters,  and  the  sex,  treated  elsewhere  as  though 
it  were  soulless,  honoured  with  countless  acts  of 
courtesy,  you  take  the  foreigner's  surprise  as  a  sign 
that  he  is  an  Oriental,  and  has  not  been  bred  in 
our  gracious  traditions.  The  two  hemispheres  differ, 
and  their  inhabitants  are  equally  astonished  at  the 
inverted  behaviour  of  the  other.  The  degree  of 
surprise  is  a  key  to  race  and  past  training.  It 
classifies  into  different  categories.  And  such  sharp 
contradictions  often  exist  in  two  sections  of  the  same 
community. 

Though  Jesus  had  lived  in  Nazareth  for  thirty 
years,  when  these  acute  symptoms  of  unbelief  began 
to  show  themselves,  He  felt  as  though  He  were  in  a 
strange  world.  The  temper  of  pertinacious  doubt  in 
His  fellow-townsmen  was  a  shock  to  His  Divine 
instincts,  because   He  belonged  to  a  different  order. 

"  He  marvelled."  Is  this  a  form  of  speech  due  to 
the  limitations  of  earthly  language  ?  or  does  it  indi- 
cate a  mental  characteristic  peculiar  to  the  life  of 
Jesus  in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  and  more  nearly  akin 
to  the  human  nature  He  bore  than  the  Divine?  Shall 
we  be  inferring  too  much  if  we  say  that  perhaps  this 


ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF  247 

temper  of  astonishment  reflects  some  faint  light  upon 
the  change  through  which  the  Eternal  Son  passed,  in 
the  mysterious  process  of  the  Incarnation  ?  We  can 
scarcely  imagine  an  all-wise,  soul-searching  God  ex- 
pressing surprise  at  any  new  phase  of  human  frailty 
which  starts  up  into  view.  His  survey  is  so  close  and 
exhaustive  that  no  development  of  evil  can  take  Him 
unawares.  That  Jesus  should  have  to  make  succes- 
sive discoveries  of  the  hard-hearted  unbelief  which 
was  resisting  His  ministry  and  checking  its  mighty 
functions,  shows  how  the  taking  on  of  human  flesh 
had  veiled  His  knowledge,  or  at  least  put  a  part  of 
that  knowledge  into  abeyance.  As  man  He  was  no 
longer  cognisant  of  the  things  which,  because  of  His 
plenary  participation  in  the  life  of  the  Deity,  had 
been  open  to  Him  from  the  beginning.  The  mood  of 
doubt  could  not  have  been  a  surprise  to  Him,  if  His 
outlook  upon  the  heart-secrets  of  the  synagogue  at 
Nazareth  had  still  been  one  and  the  same  with  that 
of  the  Father. 

And  yet  whilst  His  knowledge  of  the  enigmas  of 
character  seems  to  have  come  through  human 
channels  and  in  common  ways.  His  sense  of  the 
Divine  verities  was  such  that  He  felt  men  ought 
to  have  responded  to  them  by  a  consistent  faith.  His 
descent  into  a  human  form  had  not  impaired  the 
glory  of  His  moral  affections,  and  He  was  vividly 
alive  to  the  just  degree  of  trust  due  to  the  Father ;  so 
conscious  of  it  indeed  that  it  startled  Him  to  find 
others  were  not,  to  some  extent  at  least,  impressed 
with  the  obligation  of  faith.  This  apprehension, 
through  the  indestructible  instincts  of  His  spiritual 
personality,  of  all  that  the  Father  claimed  from  the 
souls  of  men,  was  quicker  than  His  sensitiveness  to 


248  ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF 

the  scorn  and  dubitations  in  the  souls  of  His  neigh- 
bours. Whatever  ecHpse  might  have  overtaken  His 
natural  attributes  there  had  been  no  self-emptying  of 
the  contents  of  His  moral  attributes,  and  the  spiritual 
principles  of  the  consciousness  which  belonged  to  Him 
as  He  dwelt  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father  were  still 
alive  within  His  soul.  Throughout  the  days  of  His 
flesh  He  was  sensibly  united  to  a  realm  in  which 
unbelief  was  counted  a  profane  anomaly. 

As  Jesus  stood  face  to  face  with  the  unbelief  of  His 
townsmen,  His  kinsfolk,  and  even  of  the  disciples 
themselves.  He  found  Himself  in  a  world  that  jarred 
His  Divine  instincts  and  sensibilities.  These  deformed 
attitudes  of  the  human  mind  were  like  nightmares. 
With  a  sudden  start  of  pain  He  woke  up  to  the  fact 
that,  in  this  social  environment  to  which  He  belonged, 
there  was  a  temper  of  abnormal  doubt,  conflicting 
with  His  own  deep  intuitions  and  the  mission  He  had 
been  sent  to  fulfil.  He  had  to  adjust  Himself  to  a 
new  view-point,  or  at  least  to  judge  what  the  view- 
point of  these  rude  sceptics  of  Nazareth  was  ;  and 
the  process  was  an  ordeal.  This  peculiar  and  intract- 
able temper,  shown  by  people  who  called  themselves 
children  of  a  believing  patriarch,  was  one  of  the 
most  startling  things  which  came  within  the  compass 
of  His  experience.  This  Prophet  of  mysterious  ante- 
cedents, who  was  just  entering  upon  His  public 
ministry,  belonged  to  a  spiritual  kingdom,  where 
faith  was  the  one  catholic  and  all-pervading  law, 
and  the  unbelief  of  the  mountain-town  where  He  had 
been  brought  up,  which  defied  His  authority,  limited 
His  work,  and  divided  even  His  own  household, 
was  a  displeasing  and  sinister  phenomenon.  We 
might  perhaps  have  looked  upon  it  as   natural,  but 


ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF  249 

He  viewed  it  as  a  strange  religious  obliquity  which 
had  intruded  into  the  midst  of  worshippers  of  that 
Divine  Father  who  was  in  the  act  of  redeeming 
His  children  from  thraldom — worshippers  who, 
strange  to  say,  still  professed  the  age-long  hope 
of  their  race.  The  temper  showing  itself  in 
Nazareth  was  incompatible  with  the  vocation  to 
which  He  was  bidden,  against  the  tenor  of  His  own 
spiritual  habits,  and  outside  His  central  experience 
and  anticipation.  He  could  scarcely  have  been 
more  surprised  to  find  Himself  in  a  fable-land  of 
monstrosities  than  He  was  at  being  confronted  with 
this  chilling  suspicion  and  scepticism,  which,  after 
all,  was  one  and  the  same  thing  with  mistrust  of 
the  power  and  fidelity  of  the  Eternal.  Such  mal- 
formations and  unnatural  attitudes  of  the  spirit 
were  more  distressing  than  the  maimed  limbs  and 
the  twisted  spines,  for  the  cure  of  which  His  help 
was  asked.  Although  it  was  true  of  Him  here, 
as  in  Jerusalem  at  a  later  stage,  "  He  knew  what 
was  in  man,"  He  did  not  look  for  such  a  deadening 
psychic  atmosphere.  The  crisis  through  which  He 
passed  must  have  been  akin  to  that  of  the  child 
trained  in  a  refined  and  gracious  home,  who  goes 
forth  into  the  world  to  find  a  treasured  name 
bandied  about  by  scoffers  and  treated  as  though  it 
were  of  little  worth.  "  He  marvelled  because  of 
their  unbelief." 

Is  not  the  pained  surprise  flushing  His  face  as 
eloquent  of  Divine  Sonship  as  a  glint  of  transfigura- 
tion splendour  ?  Our  Lord's  amazement  at  this 
widespread  unbelief  is  a  sign  of  separateness  from 
His  infirm  and  blemished  contemporaries.  Could 
He   visit  again   even   those  who  call  themselves  by 


250  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

His  name,  the  same  anomaly  would  recur.  In  that 
realm  of  feeling  to  which  we  contribute,  and  which 
in  its  turn  reacts  upon  our  own  souls,  the  same 
sharp  sense  of  incongruity  would  arise.  Do  we  not 
look  at  things  from  a  point  of  view  which  has  little 
in  common  with  His,  and  thereby  show  a  difference 
of  essential  origin  ?  At  our  best  we  are  from  beneath, 
children  of  the  dust  with  an  earthward  twist  in  our 
natures,  and  doubt  is  a  more  facile  habit  to  us  than 
faith.  Deep-seated,  insidious  unbelief  fails  to  excite 
our  wonder,  unless  it  be  blatant,  blaspheming, 
anarchic.  We  do  not  apologise  for  it,  because  in 
our  judgment  demonstrations  of  the  supernatural 
are  few  and  far  between,  and  the  incapacity  for 
faith  is  just  what  might  be  expected  from  the 
conditions  in  which  human  nature  is  placed.  Unless 
religious  scepticism  outrages  established  conventions 
we  accept  it  as  a  part  of  the  customary  order. 
Whilst  the  dearth  of  faith  called  forth  the  astonish- 
ment of  Jesus,  any  sign  of  its  vital,  triumphant 
presence  in  our  midst  excites  us  to  an  equal  measure 
of  surprise.  We  think  of  those  heroes  of  faith 
immortalised  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  who 
subdued  kingdoms  and  wrought  righteousness,  as 
a  race  of  demigods  who  crossed  the  stage  of  history 
when  the  world  was  young,  and  have  never  since 
thought  fit  to  revisit  it.  If  we  were  to  meet  them 
in  the  cities  of  our  modern  civilisation  we  should  be 
as  much  astonished  as  if  we  chanced  across  a  group 
of  Mahatmas  from  the  cloudland  of  Thibet  on 
Hampstead  Heath  or  in  Epping  Forest.  The 
singular  trust  in  God  by  which  Spurgeon,  Moody, 
and  Muller  of  Bristol  walked,  we  regard  as  due  to 
a   happy    combination    of    temperament   and    good 


ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF  251 

fortune.  Their  stories  will  soon  belong  to  the 
pious  myths  of  the  last  century.  That  prayer 
should  be  answered  is  quite  romantic,  and  there 
is  a  factor  in  the  case  we  do  not  understand. 
Perhaps  it  is  telepathy.  The  faith  which,  in  the 
domain  of  personal  character  or  social  reconstruc- 
tion removes  mountains,  is  the  exception  ;  and  we 
do  not  assume  that  it  will  become  the  rule  in  any 
age  or  land.  We  look  upon  this  gift  which  achieves 
and  overcomes  as  the  kind  of  tree  which  blooms 
once  in  a  hundred  years.  The  more  shame  to  us 
that  faith  and  its  feats  should  be  relegated  to  the 
realm  of  the  uncommon,  if  not  of  the  impossible. 
We  are  acclimatised  to  an  atheistic  world  and  faith 
surprises  us,  whilst  Jesus  belonged  to  a  contrasted 
world,  and  it  was  the  lack  of  faith  which  surprised. 
In  His  amazement  the  Master  reveals  an  origin 
quite  unlike  ours,  with  habits,  instincts,  attitudes 
of  mind  peculiarly  His  own. 

This  flash  of  surprise  shows  that,  during  His  thirty 
years'  sojourn  in  Nazareth,  Jesus  had  not  been 
subdued  to  the  temper  of  doubt  abroad,  but  had 
kept  untarnished  the  first  fine  bloom  of  His  faith. 
His  soul  had  continued  to  dwell  in  a  realm  of  ideals 
where  sure  confidence  in  the  redemptive  counsels 
of  the  Father,  and  in  Himself  as  the  chosen  instru- 
ment for  working  out  their  ends  had  the  force  and 
the  obviousness  of  a  primary  duty.  Through  early 
years  of  learning  and  through  later  years  of  common 
toil  His  soul  had  been  domiciled  amidst  spiritualities 
where  the  highest  faith  seemed  congruous  and  rational, 
whilst  unbelief  implied  ignorance  of  the  all-besetting 
providence  of  Heaven.  The  average  man  becomes  so 
steeped   in  the   social  atmosphere  he  breathes,  and 


252  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

so  mastered  by  ignoble  precedents,  that  nothing 
surprises  him.  The  fact  that  faith  should  still  seem 
so  entirely  natural  to  the  mind  of  Jesus,  nothing 
less  indeed  than  a  prime  essential  of  righteousness, 
was  a  sufficient  witness  that  He  had  always  been 
true  to  the  Father,  and  obedient  to  the  leadings  of 
His  unfailing  presence.  He  had  not  been  dragged 
down  by  strain,  vexation,  religious  negligence  out  of 
the  high  habitations  of  His  spirit  into  common 
currents  of  passion  and  prejudice,  or  He  would  have 
been  content  to  interpret  the  responsibilities  of  His 
townsmen  by  a  lower  standard,  and  would  have 
taken  their  scepticisms  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Habits  of  Divine  fellowship  were  more  real  and 
absorbing  than  the  secular  ties,  associations,  and 
employments  of  the  sphere  where  His  lot  was  cast. 
The  germ-faith,  brought  with  Him  into  the  world, 
was  carefully  nourished  by  the  Scriptures,  which 
portrayed  Himself  and  His  work.  His  life  was 
ever  turning  back  to  find  its  resting-place  in  the 
bosom  whence  it  came,  and  in  the  days  and  nights 
of  common  toil  He  doubtless  prayed  intently  as  in 
the  hours  of  silence  afterwards  snatched  from  an 
active  ministry.  He  moved  in  a  realm  where  the 
obligation  of  faith  presented  itself  as  inviolably 
sacred  ;  and,  unlike  some  of  us,  always  made  it  a 
ruling  aim  to  keep  Himself  there.  He  watched  for 
the  dawn  in  others  of  the  faith  by  which  He 
Himself  was  possessed,  and  wondered  when  no 
sign  of  it  appeared.  Belief,  after  all,  is  not  intel- 
lectual, but  is  determined  by  the  ethical  and 
religious  influence  within  which  a  man  anchors 
himself.  Our  Lord  could  not  bring  Himself  to 
the  local    standpoint,  for  it  was  unthinkable  that  a 


ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF  253 

Jew  at  least,  should  be  exempt  from  the  obligation 
to  believe. 

It  is  said  that  the  diamond  cannot  be  cut  by  a 
stone  of  inferior  hardness,  because  its  constituent 
atoms  move  in  such  swift  revolutions  that  the  slow 
currents  of  softer  substances  are  powerless  to  break 
in  upon  them,  and  arrest  their  tremendous  velocities. 
And  there  was  a  swiftness  and  intense  force  in  the 
thoughts  of  the  Son  concerning  His  Divine  Father, 
exceeding  that  of  light  rushing  from  central  suns, 
so  that  the  sluggish  traditions  and  prejudices  of 
unspiritual  neighbours  and  comrades,  with  whom 
He  had  been  reared,  could  not  break  in  upon  His 
pure  and  vehement  consciousness,  or  flaw  His 
character  with  defect,  religious  infirmity,  and 
fashionable  scepticism. 

As  we  see  this  surprise  reflected  in  the  face  of  Jesus, 
may  we  not  infer  that  He  came  down  to  His  work 
amongst  men  from  a  holy  world,  where  faith  was  the 
all-pervading  law  ?  That  world  had  put  its  enduring 
imprint  upon  His  personality,  or  rather  His  per- 
sonality had  put  its  sovereign  imprint  upon  the 
world.  Perhaps  we  are  not  always  correct  in  speak- 
ing of  this  earthly  sphere  as  the  one  school  in  which 
intelligent  beings  may  acquire  a  faith  which  is 
contrasted  with  sight,  while  heaven  is  filled  with 
immediate  manifestations  of  God  which  make  faith 
needless.  Although  some  of  our  present  riddles  may 
find  a  solution  beyond  the  veil,  realms  irradiated 
with  God's  unclouded  presence  may  still  offer  scope 
for  the  practice  of  faith,  no  less  than  the  tangled  and 
troubled  life  of  earth.  The  Advent  made  plain 
things  into  which  the  sons  of  light  had  long  looked 
with  fixed  wistfulness,  but  it  also  left   many  things 


254  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

for  the  spreading  illuminations  of  the  after-days. 
In  the  spheres  of  the  unseen  there  are,  and  always 
must  be,  inscrutable  mysteries  challenging  the  faith 
of  those  who  dwell  there,  differing  perhaps,  from 
those  which  for  the  moment  perplex  us.  But 
the  baffled  understanding  cannot  degenerate  into 
unlovely  mistrust.  The  obedience  to  God's  will 
rendered  by  the  shining  hosts,  no  less  than  ours, 
is  an  obedience  of  faith.  The  ministries  to  which 
they  are  commissioned  are  ministries  of  faith,  faith 
in  the  redemptive  Covenant  of  God,  as  well  as  in 
the  perfectibility  and  upward  progress  of  those  to 
whom  they  are  sent.  They  work  for  hidden  goals 
beneath  the  furthest  horizon  lines  to  which  they  see. 
As  fast  as  the  old  problems  of  God  are  solved,  new 
problems  mount  into  view.  The  larger  apprehensions 
of  God's  ways  are  preceded  by  a  spirit  of  trust,  the 
demand  for  which  never  slackens.  Trust  and  love 
are  the  twin  laws  of  heaven,  and  doubt  is  a  strange 
treason,  an  abnormal  crime,  a  godless  errancy 
abhorred  by  all.  Every  faculty  of  our  Lord's  rare 
personality  had  inhaled  the  spirit  of  those  realms 
where  faith  in  the  immanent  power  and  untiring 
goodness  of  God  was  the  keynote  of  order,  the  breath 
of  worship,  the  mainspring  of  ministry.  It  was 
there  that  the  deep  roots  of  His  mysterious  being 
were  grappled,  and  no  wonder  that  unbelief  should 
startle  and  repel  Him.  The  temper  was  abnormal, 
an  atrocious  dissonance,  a  distressing  deformity, 
a  flagitious  offence  in  the  realm  where  His  spirit  had 
its  home  before  He  became  man.  It  was  a  shock,  an 
unhappy  discovery,  a  pained  amazement  for  such  an 
one  to  encounter  the  fierce  unbelief  of  the  world,  and 
especially  of  that  part  of  the  world  which  was  sup- 


ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF  255 

posed  to  be  religious  and  had  been  knit  to  His  heart 
by  the  associations  of  childhood.  He  reddened  with 
mingled  shame  and  wrath  as  the  murmurings  passed 
through  the  crowd,  like  a  virgin  spirit  making  its 
first  discovery  of  evil. 

This  feeling  of  amazement,  provoked  by  the 
upsurgings  of  unbelief,  throws  some  light  upon  our 
Lord's  antecedent  history.  His  uncommon  per- 
sonality had  not  been  cast  in  the  moulds  furnished 
by  the  everyday  life  of  Nazareth.  This  incident 
itself  is  an  undesigned  testimony  to  the  fact  that 
elements  entered  into  it  which  were  a  preincarnate 
inheritance.  Biologists  tell  us  that  our  natural 
instincts  are  often  the  vestiges  of  experiences 
stretching  beyond  the  individual  life,  and  having 
hidden  roots  in  a  past  incalculably  remote.  In  un- 
conscious acts  there  may  be  seen  traces  of  the  path 
by  which  a  race  has  travelled  from  its  cradle  to 
the  goal  of  its  mature  accomplishments.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  surprising  grip-strength  in  the  hand 
of  a  new-born  babe,  is  an  inheritance  from  the  days 
when  the  progenitors  of  the  race  were  arboreal  in 
their  habits,  and  clambered  amidst  the  branches 
of  forest  trees.  The  divergent  moods  and  disposition 
which  contend  within  us  perhaps  represent  different 
strains  of  blood  that  came  into  the  tribe  in  pre- 
historic, or  even  later  times.  Such  statements  may 
not  express  the  final  dogmas  of  science,  and  yet 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  in  striking  ways  the 
past  is  revived  and  lives  again  in  us. 

In  the  amazement  of  Jesus  at  the  unbelief  which 
marked  the  weekly  hearers  in  the  synagogue  is  it 
not  possible  that  the  past  world  of  faith,  over  which 
He  was  enthroned  before  entering  into  human  form. 


256  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

lives  again  ?  With  these  people  of  the  Galilean 
hillside  He  had  gone  in  and  out  for  a  generation, 
watching  them  with  knowledge  and  true  insight.  He 
is  familiar  with  their  frailties.  And  yet  the  degree 
of  this  unbelief  is  a  distressing  surprise.  Ethically 
He  belongs  to  another  world,  and  is  not  quite 
acclimatised  to  that  in  which  He  sojourns.  He  had 
thought  faith  the  most  natural,  spontaneous  and 
binding  thing  in  the  universe,  and  yet  perhaps  even 
the  best  of  the  apostles  excused  unbelief  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  natural  to  men,  whilst  faith 
seemed  overstrained  and  artificial.  He  and  His 
.  followers  were  affiliated  to  widely  different  realms. 
Because  it  was  His  age-long  habit  to  believe.  He  was 
as  much  startled  by  an  epidemic  of  sceptical  criticism, 
as  the  inhabitants-  of  an  equatorial  isle  would  be 
startled  by  a  sudden  snow-storm.  Does  not  this 
temper  of  amazement  carry  our  thoughts  to  a  pre- 
human life  of  pure  and  perfect  faith  ?  He  had  lived 
in  such  high  fellowship  that  distrust  of  the  Father's 
power  and  goodwill,  as  set  forth  in  the  works  of  His 
chosen  Son,  was  a  stupendous  anomaly.  Is  not  this 
the  note  of  a  personality  which  had  moved  and 
breathed  in  the  bosom  of  the  Eternal  love  and 
assimilated  its  counsels  of  redemption  ? 

This  wonder  was  not  impulsive  only,  but  involved 
a  deliberate  judgment  upon  what  was  due  from  a 
privileged  people.  The  faith  so  natural  to  Himself, 
He  felt  to  be  also  binding,  in  some  degree,  upon  those 
who  came  within  the  circle  of  His  influence.  If  these 
Galilean  sceptics  had  been  placed  under  the  disabilities 
of  a  pagan  upbringing,  He  might  have  excused  their 
slowness  to  believe.  But  they  were  familiar  with  the 
Old  Testament  histories  and  knew  that  the  unbelief 


ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF  257 


which  had  brought  penalties  upon  their  forefathers  was 
still  fraught  with  the  same  sure  retributions.  They 
knew  also  that  the  good  in  their  past  history  was  a 
fruit  of  faith,  and  the  spiritual  law  had  not  become 
obsolete.  They  were  learning  these  lessons  every 
Sabbath-day  in  the  synagogue.  It  was  marvellous 
that  with  such  a  training  they  should  have  withheld 
their  faith  from  One  whom  thev  knew,  and  who  had 
been  marked  out  by  mighty  works  as  the  Messenger 
of  redemption.  They  had  lived  side  by  side  with 
Jesus  for  thirty  years,  and  influences  so  long  making 
for  faith  could  not  be  ignored.  It  was  in  a  temper  of 
reason  and  equity  that  the  Lord  estimated  this  and 
the  kindred  obligations  which  were  resting  upon 
them.  He  did  not  meet  every  man  with  the  same 
scale  of  expectation  in  His  mind.  He  marvelled  at 
the  faith  of  the  Roman  Centurion,  just  as  much  as 
He  marvelled  at  the  woeful  lack  of  it  in  His 
Jewish  neighbours.  At  no  time  in  his  career  had 
the  stern  soldier  enjoyed  opportunities  likely  to  bring 
him  into  sympathy  with  the  Messianic  hope.  Un- 
like the  synagogue,  camp  and  barrack-room  tended 
to  make  a  man  cynical,  evil-judging,  unspiritual.  But 
he  rose  above  his  surroundings.  The  tradition  of 
the  service  in  which  he  was  engaged  became  a  parable, 
and  wrought  in  him  an  attitude  of  holy  confidence 
in  a  wonder-worker  who  had  but  little  honour  in 
his  own  country.  In  defiance  of  probabilities,  the 
soldier  rose  into  a  faith  which  eclipsed  that  of  his 
Jewish  contemporaries.  The  people  of  Nazareth 
ought  to  have  been  a  valiant  bodyguard  of  their  own 
Prophet,  to  have  held  up  His  hands,  and  to  have 
copied  the  early  heroes  of  faith.  They  were  atten- 
dants at  the  most  highly  favoured  synagogue  of  the 

18 


258  ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF 

land.  The  Lord  had  sojourned  here  for  a  generation, 
whilst  He  paid  brief  visits  only  to  other  places. 
They  could  watch  His  demeanour,  weigh  His 
claims,  walk  by  His  side,  propound  their  questions. 
But  all  their  criticisms  centred  in  the  fact  that  He 
was  apparently  of  humble  antecedents,  and  had  been 
so  wanting  in  local  patriotism  as  to  work  more 
miracles  in  other  places  than  at  home.  If  like 
Simeon  and  Anna  they  had  been  waiting  for  Israel's 
redemption,  in  the  deeper  sense  of  the  word,  they 
would  have  recognised  in  Him  One  sent  by  the 
Father  and  have  confessed  His  authority.  These 
Old  Testament  saints  could  see  the  Deliverer  in  the 
babe,,  whilst  the  folk  of  Nazareth  failed  to  find  Him 
in  the  full-grown,  consecrated  man,  mighty  in  word 
and  deed.  How  unworthy  of  their  descent  from  the 
father  of  the  faithful !  Their  opportunities  were 
rich  and  indeed  unrivalled,  but,  then  as  now,  the 
persons  who  will  not  believe  are  often  the  heirs  of 
transcendent  privilege.  Alas  for  the  heart-breaking 
scepticisms  of  those  who  seem  to  be  pillars  of  the 
synagogue  ! 

Our  Lord's  amazement  must  have  been  aggravated 
as  He  marked  the  frivolous  causes  which  fostered  this 
unbelief,  and  the  poor  apology  His  fellow-townsmen 
made  for  themselves.  Faith  is  a  spiritual  principle, 
demanding  for  its  growth  and  fruitful  development 
congruous  conditions.  It  is  not  intellectual  in  its 
origin,  although  some  of  the  perplexities  which  assail 
our  faith  and  test  its  genuineness  can  only  be  dis- 
pelled by  close  and  clear  thinking.  It  cannot  be 
created  by  the  methods  of  logic,  or  finally  destroyed 
by  the  processes  of  criticism.  If  we  analyse  current 
phases  of  unbelief,  we  find  that   many  causes  have 


ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF  259 

entered  into  it.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  to  be  wondered  at 
when  the  great  tumultuous  passions  of  the  flesh 
bhnd  the  eyes,  and  men  refuse  to  beheve  what  is 
holy ;  but  it  is  strange  and  curious,  when  the  only 
excuse  men  offer  for  their  lack  of  faith  is  that  the 
authority  which  invites  it  is  devoid  of  pomp  and 
outward  trappings.  Hands  which  have  held  plane 
and  saw  can  scarcely  be  Divine.  If  the  townsmen 
of  Nazareth  had  believed  in  a  man  of  God  because 
He  was  a  professional  scribe,  rather  than  a  carpenter, 
such  homage  of  social  rank  would  have  been  specious 
and  would  have  been  no  better  than  the  unbelief 
which  astonished  Jesus.  The  neighbours  of  Jesus 
became  doubters  through  sheer  force  of  caste-worship. 
They  were  respecters  of  persons,  and  had  no  appre- 
ciation for  high  spiritual  attributes.  A  carpenter,  and 
the  reputed  son  of  a  carpenter,  with  commonplace 
brothers  and  sisters  forsooth  !  In  the  sycophant  we 
may  sometimes  see  the  chrysalis  from  which  an 
unbeliever  emerges.  They  despised  the  man  who 
had  lived  and  wrought  alongside  them,  though  He 
was  wise  in  word  and  holy  in  deed.  In  the  sacred- 
ness  of  One  who  had  toiled  for  His  daily  bread,  and 
wore  homely  clothes,  they  could  put  no  confidence. 
They  had  eyes  for  dress  and  rank,  but  none  for 
truth,  honour,  holiness,  transcendent  personal  force. 
Peasants,  it  is  true,  had  sat  upon  the  throne  of  their 
fatherland,  and  herdsmen,  shepherds,  ploughmen  re- 
ceived the  unction  from  on  high,  long  ago,  but  they 
would  not  acclaim  to-day  a  deliverer  whose  hands 
had  been  roughened  with  toil.  This  vainglorious 
temper,  which  paralysed  faith,  was  against  all  the  best 
elements  of  their  training  and  history.  They  wanted, 
in    the   little   hillside   town,    what   was    fashionable, 


26o  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

invidiously  superior,  well-born,  academic,  Sanhedrim 
hall-marked,  and  the  finer  spiritual  virtues,  if  they  are 
to  enlist  homage  and  be  taken  as  valid  proof  of  a 
Divine  vocation,  must  be  gorgeously  attired. 

Vanity  always  proves  itself  a  prolific  soil  for  the 
growth  of  unbelief.  Petty  social  jealousies  and 
superfine  conventions  may  be  just  as  fatal  to  faith  as 
the  coarser  and  more  degrading  passions,  which  some- 
times devastate  and  profane  the  soul.  Where  trivial 
and  tenacious  class-distinctions  made  the  staple  of 
public  opinion,  it  was  impossible  to  call  forth  a  just 
trust  in  those  covenant  promises  which  had  been 
handed  down  from  the  forefathers  of  the  race  and 
were  now  verging  towards  their  fulfilment.  The 
peril  is  not  peculiar  to  one  place  or  age.  Men  some- 
times desire  a  religion  which  is  fashionable,  a  religion 
adorned  in  its  outward  types  by  the  highest  con- 
temporary taste  and  scholarship,  a  religion  which 
involves  no  effort,  sacrifice,  or  reproach,  no  strenuous 
devotion  or  self-discipline,  a  religion  well  spoken  of 
by  the  princes  of  this  world,  a  religion  with  the  pomp 
and  trappings  of  State  to  give  it  due  place  and 
dignity  in  the  earth ;  and  such  a  demand  may  be 
fatal  to  the  faith  which  Jesus  sets  Himself  to  evoke. 
It  may  suspend  or  neutralise  His  special  methods. 
Now,  as  in  the  days  of  His  advent,  the  Messenger  of 
redemption  comes  without  ostentation  and  displays 
His  spiritual  glory  in  circles  of  obscure  life,  and  if  we 
go  forth  expecting  to  find  Him  in  scenes  of  rank  and 
splendour,  searching  the  palace  for  our  Messiah  and 
forgetting  the  workshop,  we  shall  suffer  a  great  and 
ominous  mortification.  There  is  sometimes  just  as 
much  unbelief  in  the  Church  as  in  the  world,  unbelief 
based    upon   the   most  frivolous  and  irrational   pre- 


ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF  261 

judices,  and  it  is  this  which  calls  forth  the  astonish- 
ment of  Jesus.  He  found  the  leaven  of  Atheism 
in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth,  amongst  the  most 
decorous  classes  of  the  town,  and  it  was  a  Sabbath- 
day  discovery. 

This  incident  suggests  that  unbelief  is  a  petty 
parochialism,  of  the  earth  mean  and  earthy.  When 
a  man  loses  his  early  faith  in  God  and  the  economies 
of  redemption,  the  worldly-wise  are  ready  with  the 
comment  "he  is  broadening  out  in  view,  taking  larger 
groups  of  facts  into  his  horizon,  putting  away  childish 
things,  growing  comprehensive,  philosophical,  scien- 
tific in  his  habits  of  thought."  It  is  sometimes  said 
that  the  latest  education  makes  men  too  intelligent 
for  Christianity.  What  an  absurd  misrepresen- 
tation of  this  disastrous  change !  The  man  who 
withdraws  his  faith  from  a  Saviour,  whose  secret 
and  active  presence  always  hovers  over  a  ransomed 
world,  is  shrinking  into  littleness,  like  these  people 
of  Nazareth  with  insular  ideas  of  the  kingdom 
which  were  such  a  surprise  to  the  great  citizen  of 
heaven.  Dupes  of  our  senses,  tenants  of  mere  mud- 
drops  peering  out  towards  the  shining  amplitudes  of 
the  firmament,  dust-grains  clinging  to  the  fragile  web 
of  conventions  woven  about  our  doll-house  homes, 
who  are  we,  forsooth,  that  we  can  measure  the  eternal 
reason,  pronounce  judgment  on  the  central  verities, 
and  set  aside  the  claim  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  because 
He  does  not  take  the  precise  place  in  the  scheme  of 
human  society  that  we  think  He  ought  to  have  filled? 
It  is  unbelief  which  is  insular,  parochial,  the  dream- 
ing, shortsighted  product  of  a  restricted  environ- 
ment. He  who  steps  into  our  midst  from  infinite 
realms,  who  belongs  to  the  great  heavens  and  has 


262  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

explored  their  secrets,  declares  that  it  is  anomalous 
for  men,  favoured  with  light  and  privilege,  to  settle 
down  into  petty,  sullen  tempers  of  questioning  and 
mistrust.  In  presence  of  that  higher  order  replete 
with  unknown  potencies  He  has  come  to  establish 
and  explain,  the  marvel  is  not  that  men  should  now 
and  again  have  faith  and  do  great  things,  but  that 
they  should  ever  be  without  it.  Many  pains  and 
ailments,  which  did  not  enter  into  the  original  plan 
of  human  lives,  are  the  brand  of  this  spiritual  mis- 
demeanour. Men  who  scoff  at  what  has  been  un- 
happily named  "  the  supernatural "  are  not  in  tune 
with  the  larger  and  nobler  order  of  Divine  Govern- 
ment. Faith  is  cosmopolitan.  It  rules  in  every  sane 
and  luminous  part  of  the  universe.  Doubt,  with  all 
the  mischievous  blights  which  follow  in  its  train,  is  a 
symptom  scarcely  known  out  of  the  infection-wards 
in  which  we  pass  our  days.  To  those  who  people 
the  spheres  overarching  our  sickly  earth  the  unbelief, 
to  which  we  are  prone,  is  phenomenal.  The  princi- 
palities and  powers  in  heavenly  places  would  be 
wonder-struck  if  they  could  explore  those  mazes  of 
distempered  feeling  in  which  God  is  dishonoured. 
To  believe  is  in  harmony  with  the  age-long  order 
to  which  Jesus  was  related.  Faith  was  stamped 
upon  every  fibre  of  His  Incarnate  life  and  the  lack 
of  it  in  others  amazed  Him. 

In  His  dependence  upon  the  co-acting  faith  of 
men,  Jesus  Christ  reflects  the  ways  of  God  in  the 
world  to-day.  We  forget  how  God  conditions  His 
work  in  our  midst,  and  aim  inane  reproaches  against 
His  dealings  with  us  ;  whilst  all  the  time  we  know 
that,  apart  from  our  co-operation.  He  will  not  do 
great  things  for  us.     This  is  an  established  method 


ABNORMAL    UNBELIEF  263 

of  His  redemptive  government.  In  the  unpeopled 
spaces  of  the  firmament  the  Divine  activities  are 
subject  to  no  restraint  or  limitation,  for  He  is  free 
to  do  as  He  thinks  fit  with  impersonal  things  ;  but 
when  He  brings  rational  and  responsible  beings  upon 
the  stage,  in  that  very  act  He  defines  and  deter- 
mines the  rule  of  His  own  subsequent  methods. 
He  has  to  delimit  a  frontier.  He  circumscribes  His 
power  in  giving  man  freedom.  If  this  were  not  so, 
man's  functions  would  be  inconstant  and,  like  the 
rights  of  a  Duma,  liable  to  a  capricious  suppression. 
Jesus  Christ  did  not  enter  upon  His  vocation  in 
Galilee  with  the  one  aim  of  ending  the  ailments 
and  distresses  under  which  its  population  laboured, 
but  to  heal  as  a  sign  from  the  Father,  and  an  earnest 
of  the  goal  to  which  it  was  His  office  to  lead  men, 
after  they  had  been  brought  into  co-operation  with 
His  work.  Miracles  were  futile  unless  they  availed 
to  give  some  glimpse  into  the  verities  of  His 
person  and  produced  believers  in  His  power  of 
bringing  to  fulfilment  redemptive  aims.  God  could 
end  all  pains  by  causing  a  dew  of  anodynes  to 
descend  upon  every  home  of  suffering  and  distil 
itself  into  every  convulsed  and  heaving  bosom ; 
but  such  an  expedient  would  bring  the  race  into 
no  nearer  union  with  the  Divine  life.  A  baptism 
of  anesthetics  for  an  agonised  race  would  leave  it 
at  the  same  religious  levels,  falling  short  as  ever  of 
the  Divine  image.  When  men  say,  "  He  does 
nothing,"  the  reply  is  inevitable  if  we  understand 
His  ways,  "  It  is  because  we  believe  nothing." 

Let  us  see  to  it  that  we  have  a  faith  which  satis- 
fies the  Lord  upon  whom  it  takes  hold  and  helps 
on   His  redemptive  acts.     And  if  we  are  to  rise  to 


264  ABNORMAL   UNBELIEF 

this  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  natural  and  not 
a  strained  and  artificial  habit  of  mind  is  that  which 
is  required  from  us.  Men  ought  to  walk  by  faith, 
so  normal  and  unstudied  should  be  the  exercise. 
Faith  is  not  a  convulsive  leap.  It  is  our  indecisions, 
our  chronic  questionings,  our  disabling  doubts  which 
are  abnormal.  When  we  reach  loftier  vantage- 
ground  these  evil  questionings  of  the  heart  will  look 
like  irrational  phantoms.  The  unbelieving  world 
is  a  fable-realm  full  of  shadows,  grotesqueness,  and 
deformity.  As  He  tries  our  reins  and  our  hearts, 
God  forbid  that  the  depth  and  contumacy  of  our 
scepticism  should  provoke  His  wonder  and  pain. 
May  He  rather  find  a  faith  which  shall  lead  Him 
to  say,  "  This  is  what  I  looked  for  from  the  men 
in  whose  place  I  died  "  ! 


XIV 

THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS 

"  Behold  I  lay  in  Zion  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock 
of  offence.  And  he  that  believeth  on  Him  shall  not  be  put 
to  shame." — Rom.  ix.  33. 

We  sometimes  hear  this'  and  kindred  texts  of 
Scripture  quoted  as  though  the  Bible,  in  its  sterner 
parts,  taught  an  unlovely  doctrine  of  reprobation, 
alien  alike  to  reason  and  the  best  instincts  of  human 
nature.  But  when  we  so  read  Isaiah,  and  this 
section  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  we  miss  the 
right  emphasis  of  the  message.  It  was  not  to 
magnify  the  prerogatives  of  an  arbitrary  and  terrific 
sovereignty  that  God  laid  in  Zion  a  foundation, 
which  to  many  proved  a  "  stone  of  stumbling  and 
a  rock  of  offence."  If  men  are  indeed  evil  and 
need  to  be  saved  at  all,  in  His  method  of  dealing 
with  them,  God  must  often  place  Himself  athwart 
their  ingrained  prejudices  and  sensibilities.  The 
process  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ  cannot  be 
self-soothing  in  all  its  stages  :  and,  for  those  who 
will    not    brook    contradiction    and    submit    to    the 

vexing  of  their  pride,  the   process  must  prove  itself 

265 


266         THE   SALVATION   WHICH   AFFRONTS 

ineffectual.  The  hand  stretched  forth  to  rescue  an 
imperilled  soul  may  perchance  seem  rough  and 
unmannerly  in  some  of  its  movements.  A  gospel 
that  allows  men's  deepest  prejudices  to  sleep  on 
unmortified  and  undisturbed,  leaves  them  without 
improvement  in  their  essential  spirit  and  character,  and 
contributes  nothing  to  the  new  creation  of  the  world. 

Prejudices  are  of  two  kinds,  innocuous  and  fatal. 
There  are  long-established,  and  perhaps  unreasoned, 
racial  customs  that  lie  upon  the  surface,  and  do 
not  touch  questions  of  vital  morals,  to  which  we 
may  bow  without  detriment.  It  matters  little 
whether  we  greet  each  other  with  a  handshake  or 
with  a  Hindoo  salaam,  eat  our  food  seated  at  a 
table  or  crouched  upon  a  mat,  show  our  respect 
when  we  enter  a  house  by  taking  off  our  hat,  or 
our  shoes.  These  are  trifles  which  every  country 
settles  for  itself  according  to  its  past  traditions. 
It  was  of  such  prejudices  that  Paul  was  thinking  when 
he  boasted  that  he  was  "  all  things  to  all  men." 
But  there  are  prejudices  which  intertwine  them- 
selves with  essential  fibres  in  the  character,  stretch 
down  to  the  root  of  vital  functions,  and  secrete  a 
virus  with  fatal  ingredients  in  it.  To  such  prejudices 
the  apostle  could  not  for  a  moment  bend.  His 
gospel  could  countenance  no  terms  with  them.  It 
was  of  these  grave,  ingrained  prejudices  fraught 
with  every  kind  of  evil  issue,  that  Paul  thought 
when  he  spoke  of  Jesus  as  an  occasion  of  stumbling 
to  many  who  were  Jewish  in  birth  and  training. 
Such  deadly  tempers  cannot  be  allowed  to  pass  un- 
challenged. A  prejudice  may  have  all  the  soul- 
blighting  characteristics  of  a  transgression. 

We  need  not  stand  aghast,  as  though  it  were  only 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS         267 

in  spiritual  realms  that  prejudice  has  this  prodigious 
power  of  mischief.  It  is  not  less  so  in  secular  things. 
The  suffering  created  by  prejudice,  under  which 
the  world  writhes  at  the  present  moment,  is  just 
as  great  as  the  suffering  engendered  by  war,  perse- 
cution, commercial  tyranny,  thriftlessness.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  people  spend  their  days  on  the 
verge  of  starvation,  because  of  the  unreasoned 
distaste  they  feel  for  new  conditions  of  life  in  a 
strange  land,  or  perish  of  famine  because  they 
will  not  take  food  which  is  against  the  rules  of 
their  caste.  Prejudice  adds  enormously  to  the  bill 
of  mortality  which  follows  every  Indian  drought. 
In  many  parts  of  the  earth  ignorant  animosities, 
inherited  from  earlier  centuries,  feed  racial  feuds 
that  never  abate  and  demand  year  by  year  a  fresh 
toll  of  blood.  The  enmities  that  keep  some  nations 
ever  armed  to  the  teeth  against  each  other  often 
rest  upon  a  basis  of  rude  and  obsolete  preconception. 
Men  and  women  die  because  of  their  old-fashioned 
contempt  for  the  new  surgery  and  the  latest  ideas 
of  sanitation.  Asiatics  perish  in  enormous  multitudes 
every  day,  because  of  their  rooted  antipathy  to 
every  physician  but  the  astrologer.  From  many  a 
door  in  China  and  Thibet  Sir  Frederick  Treeves 
would  be  driven  as  though  he  were  a  monster  of 
butchery  and  assassination.  The  methods  of  scientific 
surgery  proved  salvation,  upon  an  unexampled 
scale,  to  the  progressive  army  authorities  of  Japan 
in  its  recent  campaign,  but  to  the  preponderating 
multitudes  of  Eastern  Asia  are  still  a  stone  of 
stumbling  and  a  rock  of  offence.  For  the  time,  at 
least,  prejudice  hinders  healing  and  deliverance 
from  death. 


268         THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS 

We  cling  to  the  notion  that  God's  methods  of 
dealing  with  us  should  soothe  the  feelings  and 
uphold  within  us  a  sense  of  sweet  and  undisturbed 
comfort,  but  moral  sicknesses  often  require  a  regimen 
of  affront  and  alarm.  The  likes  and  dislikes  we 
have  nursed  for  years  must  be  ignored,  and  our  sensi- 
bilities aroused  into  angry  combat.  It  is  sometimes 
said  the  burnt  child  fears  the  fire,  but  the  wholesome 
lesson  could  not  be  learned  under  the  influence  of 
anodynes  and  sleeping  draughts.  When  a  narcotic 
has  been  swallowed  the  treatment  is  not  to  induce 
but  to  prevent  sleep.  There  must  be  no  muffling 
of  the  door-knocker  and  no  street  spread  knee-deep 
in  straw  to  deaden  sound.  Somnolence  must  be 
prevented  by  rough  and  painful  methods,  and  all 
the  antagonisms  of  the  nervous  life  must  be  made 
to  react  against  the  poison.  A  crisis  may  sometimes 
come  in  which  God  can  only  save  us  by  shocking 
our  prejudices.  The  devil  within  the  soul  is  not  to 
be  driven  out  by  such  soft  harpings  as  those  which 
soothed,  for  a  time,  the  madness  of  Saul.  If  he  is 
to  be  cast  out  the  scene  will  perhaps  be  one  of 
uproar,  struggle,  resentment. 

In  saving  men  through  His  Son  and  building  them 
into  living  temples  God  has  to  Dwrtify  the  spiritual 
pride  which  puffs  up  the  te^nper  and  blinds  the  mind. 
His  methods  run  counter  to  the  prejudice  which 
every  man  feels  in  favour  of  his  own  imperfect  and 
superficial  righteousness.  We  are  placed  midway 
between  fellow-men  whose  moral  standards  are 
defective  and  a  God  of  transcendent  holiness,  and 
have  some  touch  of  kinship  with  each.  We  share 
our  neighbours'  frailties,  and  are  also  made  in  a 
Divine  image,  the  glory  of  which  is  not  altogether 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS         269 

eclipsed.  We  may  set  up  comparisons  with  that 
which  we  find  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  and  reach 
very  different  results.  The  choice  we  make  between 
these  alternative  standards  is  a  clue  to  character  and 
a  test  of  the  promise  of  progress.  If  we  constantly 
appraise  ourselves  by  that  which  is  beneath  rather 
than  by  that  which  is  above  and  within  us  it  is  clear 
that  our  first  aim  is  to  be  on  good  terms  with  our- 
selves and  not  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  spiritual  perfec- 
tion. The  painter  who  compares  the  work  on  his 
easel  with  the  work  done  in  the  juvenile  class  of  an 
art  school,  and  not  with  the  masterpieces  of  the 
immortals,  wants  to  think  well  of  himself  rather  than 
to  achieve  the  best,  and  is  a  mere  coxcomb.  He 
stumbles  in  the  first  years  of  his  career,  becomes  a 
laughing-stock,  and  is  put  to  shame.  And  so  is  it 
with  the  man  who  does  not  wish  to  know  the  worst 
about  his  own  character  by  placing  himself  alongside 
the  highest  and  the  best. 

The  Jew  who  received  not  Jesus  when  He  came  to 
His  own  was  the  victim  of  a  self-infatuated  pride, 
which  declared  itself  in  three  ways.  He  was  ever 
comparing  himself  with  his  Gentile  neighbours  to 
his  own  advantage.  In  his  prolonged  national  dis- 
tresses he  looked  upon  himself  as  a  martyr  rather 
than  as  a  chastised  child.  And  he  trusted  in  the 
efficacy  of  his  heroic  suffering,  combined  with  divers 
ritual  expiations. 

The  Jew  had  acquired  a  habit  of  comparing  him- 
self with  the  Egyptians,  out  of  whose  land  God 
called  him  to  a  purer  worship  and  a  more  consecrated 
life  ;  with  the  degraded  Canaanites,  who  had  been 
dispossessed  to  make  room  for  better  and  more 
wholesome  tribes  ;  with  the  Assyrians,  who  in  spite 


270         THE   SALVATION    WHICH   AFFRONTS 

of  the  prowess  of  an  imposing  civilisation,  were  idol- 
worshippers  ;  with  Greeks  and  Romans,  who,  not- 
withstanding their  art,  their  literature,  their  massive 
systems  of  law,  were  the  slaves  of  superstition. 
And  the  result  was  flattering.  It  was  pleasant  to 
think  how,  political  appearances  notwithstanding,  he 
must  surely  stand  far  higher  in  Jehovah's  favour. 
Every  privilege  and  blessing  of  the  past  was  a  tribute 
to  the  virtue  of  the  Hebrew  race  rather  than  an 
undeserved  gift  of  God's  bounty.  And  this  one- 
sided method  of  reckoning  blunted  that  sense  of 
perfection  which  would  have  asserted  itself  in  peni- 
tence and  quenchless  aspiration,  if  he  had  thought 
of  the  Divine  holiness.  It  was  only  an  elect  soul 
here  and  there,  whose  mind  moved  in  other  channels, 
and  who  was  crushed  by  the  thought  of  his  estrange- 
ment from  the  Divine  pattern  of  perfection  and  in  no 
degree  elated  by  a  sense  of  his  commanding  superi- 
ority to  the  men  of  other  races.  A  knowledge  of  the 
many  virtues  of  Gentile  races  scarcely  checked  this 
bias  towards  one-sided  comparisons,  which  had  its 
beginnings  in  spiritual  pride  and  its  end  in  religious 
blindness.  The  Gentile  was  a  foil,  and  his  calling  in 
Jesus  Christ  gave  the  death-blow  to  that  pleasing 
fiction. 

Another  symptom  of  this  self-righteous  temper 
was  that  the  Jew,  in  his  infatuated  pride,  got  into 
the  way  of  looking  upon  his  sufferings  as  a  meritorious 
martyrdom  for  the  truth  rather  than  as  a  chastise- 
ment meted  out  to  him  for  his  grave  shortcomings. 
This  bias  in  favour  of  his  own  superior  sanctity  was 
rooted  and  confirmed  by  all  the  humiliations  endured 
at  the  hands  of  his  conquerors.  He  could  not  for  a 
moment  imagine  that  the  woes  alighting  upon  himself 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS         271 

and  his  brethren  were  an  appointed  penalty  of  pride, 
hollowness,  and  social  greed.  His  sufferings  for  the 
truth  to  which  he  was  still  clinging  placed  him  in 
the  front  ranks  of  saints  and  heroes.  A  member 
of  the  elect  race,  fallen  on  evil  days,  was  always 
under  the  temptation  to  think  of  himself  as  more 
or  less  of  a  victim.  If  God  blessed  Abraham's  seed 
because  of  the  faith  of  a  forefather  surely  this  zeal 
for  the  law,  this  devotion,  this  patient  fidelity  under 
Gentile  despotisms  would  be  counted  for  righteous- 
ness and  in  due  time  bring  blessing  to  his  offspring. 

But  when  his  stock  of  personal  virtues  ran  short 
not  only  were  there  the  expiations  of  the  altar,  but 
a  thousand  and  one  punctilious  formalisms  through 
which  the  Jew  might  achieve  self-expiation  of  his 
offences.  Lavish  alms-givings  to  the  poor,  fre- 
quent fastings,  a  scrupulous  daily  ritual,  hand- 
some offerings  for  temple  and  synagogue  might 
surely  prove  a  sufficient  offset  to  secular  short- 
comings. By  all  that  he  endured  in  the  long  days 
of  darkness  and  humiliation,  by  fastidious  zeal  in 
the  details  of  self-discipline,  and  by  many  prayers 
he  might  surely  store  up  merits  which  would 
be  a  sufficient  offset  to  his  faults.  The  law  itself 
provided  all  that  was  necessary  in  the  work  of 
recovering  a  status  before  God  that  might  have  been 
compromised.  It  was  a  mortal  stab  to  religious 
pride  to  be  saved  in  another  name  than  his  own. 

Was  the  Jew  to  put  out  of  his  reckoning  all  that 
separated  him  from  the  publican  and  the  Gentile  ? 
Were  these  habits  of  piety,  continued  through 
generations  of  oppression,  to  count  for  nothing  ? 
He  had  always  been  jealous  for  the  honour  of  God's 
name,  and   surely  God  would    requite   it.      He   had 


272         THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS 

upheld  the  great  traditions  of  his  history,  and  the 
reflection  fed  his  self-esteem.  He  was  not  as  the 
outcast  races,  and  to  this  fact  he  anchored  his  hope. 
But  the  moral  contrast  between  himself  and  God 
rarely  came  into  his  mind,  so  there  was  nothing 
to  check  the  growth  of  a  vainglorious  self-com- 
placency. The  mental  habit  insensibly  acquired, 
in  virtue  of  which  a  man  compares  himself  with  the 
inferior  rather  than  the  transcendent,  convicts  him 
of  egoism  and  shows  the  unreality  which  enters  into 
his  piety.  The  zeal  displayed  is  for  his  own  repute 
rather  than  for  his  Maker's  honour,  and  he  sets 
himself  at  all  hazards  to  establish  it,  even  at  the 
cost  of  his  own  growth  into  spiritual  greatness.  That 
which  blinds  a  man  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
ineffable  in  character  puts  the  drag  upon  his  advance- 
ment. If  the  problem  were  one  of  higher  develop- 
ment only,  and  not  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  by  an 
offended  God,  such  a  temper  would  need  to  be 
destroyed.  The  Jew  could  not  gain  in  likeness  to 
the  God  whose  glory  he  was  created  to  reflect  till  this 
temper  had  been  brought  low.  If  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Cross  had  not  been  necessary  to  atone  for  sin  and  to 
give  man  that  standing  in  the  Divine  favour  to  which 
he  could  not  attain  by  his  own  worth,  it  would  have 
been  required  to  save  the  Jew  from  false  views  of 
himself  and  from  that  spiritual  stagnation  to  which 
those  views  led.  The  Jew  must  be  taken  away 
from  his  own  shrivelled  righteousness,  with  its  earth- 
bound  limitations,  so  that  he  might  be  gifted  with  a 
new  sense  of  perfection  and  spiritual  destiny.  God 
could  not  make  the  children  of  Abraham  any  better 
than  they  had  been  for  centuries  without  mortifying 
their  prejudices.     By  flattering  men's  prejudices  we 


THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS         273 


may  allure  them  to  do  certain  specified  things,  but 
no  character  can  be  changed  by  such  arts.  The 
foundation-stone  of  the  new  world  must  be  a  stone 
of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of  offence,  or  the  new  will 
be  no  improvement  upon  the  old. 

Human  nature  has  still  the  same  characteristics. 
Before  men  can  be  brought  to  build  upon  Christ's 
foundation,  sooner  or  later  they  have  to  pass  through 
the  same  crisis  of  offence  as  the  Jew.  It  must  not 
be  imagined  that  this  form  of  prejudice  is  an  obso- 
lete ailment,  which  affected  the  kinsmen  and  con- 
temporaries of  Jesus,  but  has  now  been  stamped  out. 
Resentment  of  salvation  through  a  vicarious  sacrifice 
is  common  as  human  pride.  Ingrained  in  our  nature, 
everywhere  and  at  all  times,  there  is  an  undying 
revolt  against  the  doctrine  that  we  are  justified  by 
a  gift  of  love,  offered  to  us  in  the  Cross.  And  this 
revolt  does  not  rest  only  upon  a  wholesome  protest 
against  abuses  of  the  truth  of  justification  by  faith, 
or  upon  incomplete  statements  of  the  evangel  which 
ignore  the  need  for  repentance  and  a  new  life ;  but 
upon  man's  bland,  imperturbable  satisfaction  in  his 
own  virtues. 

This  innate  spiritual  pride  displays  itself  in  the 
habit  of  taking  a  faulty  neighbour  as  the  standard  of 
obligation,  and  measuring  our  attainments  by  his  tem- 
per and  characteristic  action.  If  human  nature  were 
unfallen,  and  society  were  perfectly  regulated,  some- 
thing might  be  said  for  the  methods  upon  which  such 
acts  of  self-judgment  are  based.  But  the  common 
standard  has  been  lowered.  We  might  as  well 
attempt  to  verify  our  bodily  health,  not  by  stethe- 
scopes,  weighing-machines,  and  instruments  for 
testing    muscular   strength,   but    by   contrasting   our 

19 


274         THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS 

bodily  organs  with  the  morbid,  monstrous  growths 
on  the  shelves  of  a  medical  museum.  Perhaps  the 
man  in  the  police-court  or  the  man  who  lives  at  the 
liquor-bar  is  the  pathological  specimen  against  which 
we  match  ourselves.  How  eminently  respectable  we 
are  in  comparison  !  Or  it  may  be  that  the  unworthy 
professor  of  religion,  church  official  and  notorious 
company  director,  an  aldermanic  glutton,  the  well-fed 
parasite  of  a  sweated  industry,  is  the  particular 
Gentile  with  whose  record  we  contrast  our  own. 
How  spotless  the  character  we  bear  if  put  into  such 
company  and  judged  !  Many  men  keep  a  black- 
sheep  catalogue,  written  up  to  date,  which  they  peruse 
at  intervals  for  their  comfort  and  self-assurance. 
It  coddles  one's  self-esteem  to  dwell  much  on  the 
inconsistencies  of  reputed  saints.  We  have  at  hand 
tabulated  sample-books  of  blemished  reputations  to 
which  we  can  turn  when  our  optimistic  egoisms  show 
signs  of  flagging.  If  we  cannot  find  sufficiently 
grievous  shortcomings  in  our  next-door  neighbours 
to  furnish  pertinent  and  soul-soothing  contrasts,  we 
imagine,  overcolour,  and  even  improvise  them.  Of 
course  we  far  outshine  the  morbid,  patchey, 
imperfect  saints  who  are  the  leading  figures  in  the 
adjacent  churches. 

If  the  moral  standard  of  Church  membership  is 
fairly  high,  and  does  not  lend  itself  to  invidious 
methods  of  self-appreciation,  we  invent  new  patterns 
of  perfection,  which  convict  the  herd  of  well-meaning 
pietists  of  shortcoming  and  give  us  an  advantage 
in  the  comparison.  Our  sense  of  superiority  must  be 
upheld.  Is  it  not  this  temper  which  has  led  some 
men  to  affirm  that  even  Jesus  Himself  was  not  quite 
sinless,  or  at   least   that    He  shared    the  infirmities 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH   AP^FRONTS         275 

of  the  race  to  which  He  belonged,  and  the  tinae  in 
which  He  lived  ?  He  ought  to  have  attacked 
social  problems  along  other  lines  than  those  of  moral 
influence,  and  have  made  Himself  a  practical,  con- 
structive reformer.  That  gifted  and  unhappy  writer 
Robert  Buchanan  once  said,  "It  may  be  doubted 
whether  Jesus  loved  mankind  as  much  as  Buddha." 
Perhaps  we  try  to  make  out  that  our  personal 
religion  is  not  bad,  considering  the  insufficiency  of 
the  revelation  we  have  received.  Our  conduct  rises 
as  high  as  the  positive  truth  which  is  accessible  to 
us.  "We  shun  comparisons  with  God  and  His  holy 
law,  as  though  God  were  afar  off,  forgetting  that 
He  is  in  us,  and  that  it  is  having  "  come  short  of  His 
glory  "  that  makes  the  chief  burden  of  our  shame. 

The  second  note  of  self-righteousness  in  the  Jew, 
a  habit  of  looking  upon  his  suffering  as  a  mysterious 
martyrdom  rather  than  as  the  just  chastisement  of 
his  many  offences,  is  prevalent  in  modern  life.  Our 
method  of  treating  the  problem  of  pain  is  warped 
by  an  unconscious  Pharisaism.  The  distresses  and 
privations  men  inflict  upon  each  other,  either  by 
personal  or  by  collective  action,  and  for  which  they 
are  partly  responsible,  lie  outside  the  range  of  this 
problem.  Much  of  the  suffering  in  the  world  ought 
not  to  be,  for  it  is  gratuitous  and  artificial.  But 
there  is  a  residuum  of  suffering,  coming  through  the 
direct  act  of  God  and  falling  sometimes  upon  the 
apparently  innocent,  which  we  call  undeserved. 
Things  ought  to  have  been  much  better  for  us  and 
our  friends.  We  are  the  pale,  writhing  martyrs  of  an 
inscrutable  severity,  running  through  all  the  methods 
of  that  strange  providence  which  is  enthroned  over 
the  world.     Men  are  victims  rather  than  malefactors. 


276         THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS 

How  few  subscribe  to  the  words  of  the  prophet, 
"  We  will  bear  the  anger  of  the  Lord  for  we  have 
sinned  against  Him."  Does  not  this  martyr-pose 
show  that  we  are  set  upon  maintaining  our  innocence 
before  God,  like  the  patriarch  Job,  but  with  far  less 
reason.  If  such  be  our  habit  of  thought  the  Cross 
cannot  fail  to  bring  a  deep  offence  into  our  lives  and 
is  sure  to  prove  itself  a  foundation  of  stumbling. 

The  Jew  thought  that  by  punctilious  obedience  to 
the  religious  ceremonies  prescribed  to  his  forefathers 
he  could  atone  for  the  shortcomings  of  his  secular 
ethic.  When  his  conscience  became  uneasy  he 
burdened  himself  with  new  disciplines,  so  proving 
himself  a  Pharisee  of  the  Pharisees,  in  whom  zeal 
for  God  had  no  bounds.  Within  the  Churches  that 
particular  phase  of  self-righteousness  has  not  passed 
away.  Men  sometimes  do  themselves  more  justice 
in  religious  than  in  secular  spheres.  They  make 
many  prayers,  frequent  communions,  and  show  much 
zeal  for  the  rites  of  religion,  so  hoping  to  atone  for 
grave  week-day  lapses.  Magnificent  cathedrals  are 
not  infrequently  monuments  of  Pharisaism,  for  they 
have  been  founded  by  kings  and  dukes  to  atone  for 
execrable  crimes.  A  handsome  and  superabundant 
piety  can  never  blot  out  a  breach  of  the  least  com- 
mandment in  social  life,  and  God  makes  ready  a 
foundation  of  stumbling  for  the  man  who  thinks 
it  can. 

But  outside  the  Churches  the  tendency  is  as  marked 
as  within  its  borders,  though  in  an  inverted  form. 
Men  try  to  atone  for  religious  neglect  by  a  strenuous 
secular  ethic.  A  God,  who  is  inadequately  made 
known  to  the  reason,  ought  not  to  require  more  than 
obedience  to  a  round  of  self-evident  duties,  set  off 


THE  SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS         277 

perhaps  by  a  few  special  charities  practised  in  the 
service  of  mankind.  The  world  sometimes  boasts 
that  its  commercial  integrity  surpasses  that  of  the 
Church  and  its  givings  are  more  lavish.  All  this 
may  be  the  boast  of  a  covert  Pharisaism,  which  seeks 
to  atone  for  blemishes  in  the  service  of  God,  by  a 
surpassing  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  the  poor  and  the 
oppressed.  Men  say  within  themselves  that,  if  these 
good  works  cannot  cancel  the  sum-total  of  their 
errors,  they  will  pay  in  their  own  bodies  the  penalty 
of  their  past  lapses,  and  refuse  to  be  debtors  to  a 
vicarious  redemption.  The  position  assumed  by 
such  men  is  inconsistent.  They  exercise  charity  in 
certain  ways  towards  others  but  cannot  accept  for 
themselves  the  charity  of  the  Cross.  It  is  their 
glory  to  be  altruistic  in  a  fierce,  self-seeking  world, 
and  that  must  be  their  expiation,  if  expiation  is 
needed. 

This  temper  which  is  affronted  by  the  gospel 
hides  itself  in  unsuspected  places.  It  is  present  in 
not  a  little  of  our  popular  literature,  which  is  some- 
times an  unconscious  apologetic  for  the  ugly  side 
of  human  nature.  Hero-worship  is  often  Pharisaism 
speaking  in  the  third  person.  It  assumes  that  coarse 
vices  may  be  compensated  by  uncommon  virtues, 
and  that  the  need  for  redemption  by  the  Cross  is 
not  so  dire  as  our  theology  teaches.  The  worst 
man  can  right  himself  by  a  noble  sacrifice,  at  least 
before  the  bar  of  human  judgment.  Courage  on  the 
battlefield,  the  generous  care  for  a  comrade's  life 
in  scenes  of  danger,  the  risk  of  one's  own,  expiate 
the  most  glaring  misdemeanours  of  the  past.  In 
some  familiar  sketches  it  is  the  whiskey-sodden, 
blaspheming  soldier  who  wins  the  Victoria  Cross,  or 


278         THE   SALVATION   WHICH   AFFRONTS 

achieves  moral  grandeur  by  a  last  solitary  act.  A 
grateful  country  should  forget  a  blotted  record,  and 
give  the  champion  a  foremost  place  on  the  roll  of 
honour.  Up  to  that  point  perhaps  no  misgiving 
need  trouble  us.  But  it  is  an  easy  inference  that 
the  man  who  tells  the  story  is  not  without  insight 
into  the  judgment  which  binds  or  looses  in  heaven. 
The  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  gets  into  our  history. 
The  man  whose  private  morality  is  as  base  as  it 
can  be  is  a  brilliant  admiral,  an  astute  statesman 
and  proves  himself  the  saviour  of  his  country  in  its 
hour  of  humiliation.  He  is  canonised.  It  is  true 
he  is  a  speckled  martyr,  but  he  redeemed  himself  by 
his  death-pangs.  We  are  in  danger  of  accepting  the 
plea  of  self-atonement,  and  of  assuming  that  the 
process  may  prove  valid  before  the  bar  of  God's 
judgment.  This  sentiment,  implicit  in  all  hero- 
worship,  feeds  the  pride  of  Pharisaism  and  deepens 
the  offence  of  the  Cross. 

In  all  loose  interpretations  of  the  doctrine  of 
responsibility  there  is  the  same  insidious  animus 
against  admitting  the  need  for  justification  by  the 
grace  of  another.  Determinism  is  not  an  abstract 
philosophy  only.  It  may  be  presented  in  a  strictly 
logical  and  scientific  form  from  which  there  seems 
no  appeal.  Vice  and  crime  are  symptoms  of  physio- 
logical derangement  or  the  by-products  of  an  ill- 
balanced  civilisation.  People  whose  conduct  is 
abnormal  cannot  be  other  than  they  are.  And  so 
the  nightmare  of  the  theologians  is  got  rid  of,  and 
with  it  the  need  for  redemption.  But  in  reaching 
this  conclusion  philosophy  has  made  secret  terms 
with  the  Pharisaism  of  human  nature,  and  when 
we  fall   under  its   spell,  we  resent  the  assertion   that 


TH^  SALVATION  WHICH   AFFRONTS         279 

the  mysterious  transaction  of  the  Cross  must  save 
us.  Where  there  is  no  responsibility  there  is  no  sin, 
and  where  there  is  no  sin  there  is  no  place  for  a 
suffering  Messiah. 

Are  we  not  sometimes  beguiled  by  the  ambition 
to  be  our  own  saviours,  assuming  of  course  that  in 
any  serious  sense  of  the  word  we  need  salvation  ? 
Do  we  not  set  out  to  display  the  inborn  virtues,  so 
repudiating  any  share  in  a  common  depravity? 
Do  we  not  whisper  to  ourselves  the  flattery  that  we 
are  able  to  bear  our  own  burden  ;  and  feel  bitterly 
humiliated  to  see  it  placed,  by  the  story  of  the  gospel, 
upon  the  crucified  ?  This,  after  all,  is  a  phase  of 
self-idolatry  which  must  needs  be  driven  from  the 
heart.  Resentment  of  the  call  to  self-abasement, 
the  insistence  upon  our  claim  to  be  judged  by  human 
conventions  rather  than  by  Divine  standards  of 
rectitude,  the  resolve  to  be  content  with  our  past 
record,  be  it  good  or  bad,  rather  than  to  be  over- 
whelmed with  shame  in  presence  of  the  Divine  glory, 
is  common  to  Jew  and  Gentile,  to  the  first  and  to 
the  twentieth  century  alike  ;  and  the  prejudice  must 
be  shocked,  mortified,  destroyed  before  we  can  come 
within  sight  of  salvation. 

Jesus  Christ  is  a  stone  of  stumbling  to  some  men 
because  before  they  can  cross  the  threshold  into  his 
kingdom,  God  has  to  mortify  the  overweening 
reveretice  they  have  cherished  for  the  institutions  of  the 
past.  "  Have  any  of  the  rulers  believed  on  Him  ? " 
was  a  searching  question  for  many  a  Jew,  who  could 
not  bring  himself  either  to  reject  Jesus  or  surrender 
his  faith  in  the  Divine  authority  of  the  courts  to 
which  he  had  hitherto  bowed  his  judgment.  It  is 
always  easy  to   revere   traditions  which  are  upheld 


28o         THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS 

by  the  public  opinion  of  the  hour.  Those  in  power 
are  surely  fitted  to  weigh  contending  spiritual  claims 
for  they  have  been  trained  and  chosen  for  the  work. 
It  needed  no  great  act  of  self-renunciation  to  follow 
a  well-dressed  scribe,  or  a  popular  ruler  of  the 
synagogue ;  but  to  be  the  disciple  of  a  carpenter  or 
a  fisherman  was  a  different  question.  The  right  to 
solve  religious  enigmas  and  determine  Divine  truths 
rested  with  the  schools  of  scribes,  the  priesthood  of 
the  temple,  and  the  supreme  council  at  Jerusalem. 
It  was  a  mark  of  religious  patriotism  to  be  loyal, 
through  good  and  evil  report,  to  the  existing  order. 
Much  might  be  said  in  favour  of  obedience  to 
those  organised  councils  of  religion,  which  were 
putting  themselves  into  deadly  conflict  with  the 
claims  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Was  there  no  ground 
for  expecting  a  succession  of  faithful  and  discerning 
teachers  ?  Through  many  generations  the  line  of 
the  prophets  had  not  failed,  and  when  supernatural 
gifts  tended  to  disappear  the  prophets  were  replaced 
by  honest  and  well-trained  interpreters  of  the  law. 
God's  purposes  towards  mankind  had  always  focussed 
themselves  into  the  history  of  this  elect  race,  and 
surely  its  leaders  still  expressed  the  highest  develop- 
ments of  religious  life.  The  predecessors  of  the 
scribes  were  the  organs  of  a  theocracy,  and  the 
theocracy  had  not  formally  lost  its  mandate.  It  is 
true  the  position  was  somewhat  changed,  when  the 
prophet  had  to  make  way  for  the  king,  and  still 
more  radically  changed  when  the  priests  and  scribes 
discharged  their  functions  by  the  sufferance  of 
heathen  conquerors.  Yet  God  had  not  surely  for- 
saken His  people,  and  the  interpretation  of  His  will 
must    be    looked    for   amongst    the    official    repre- 


THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS         281 

sentatives  of  Israel.  Orders  are  indelible.  It  was 
the  merit  of  the  Jew  to  be  obstinately  true  to  his 
own  past.  Religion  and  patriotism  were  indissolubly 
merged.  He  must  bow  to  the  existing  order,  even 
at  the  risk  of  doing  less  than  justice  to  Jesus  the 
Prophet  of  Galilee. 

And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  clear  that  the 
religious  leaders  had  been  living  on  the  reputation  of 
their  forefathers.  Their  minds  were  closed  to  new 
ideals  and  developments,  and  they  had  long  outlived 
the  commission  they  claimed.  They  had  forgotten 
that  the  religion  of  Jehovah  had  been  revealed  by 
slow  increments,  and  that  larger  disclosures  of  its 
significant  principles  had  yet  to  be  made.  They 
looked  upon  the  age  of  prophecy  as  finally  closed. 
The  right  of  private  judgment  they  treated  with 
contempt,  and  met  in  a  temper  of  flagrant  worldli- 
ness  and  expediency  the  solemn  issues  of  the  hour. 
They  could  not  assimilate  the  sayings,  and  resented 
the  methods,  of  this  new  Prophet  from  the  hills 
of  Galilee.  Blindness  had  obviously  overtaken  them, 
and  by  the  act  in  which  they  condemned  the  guilt- 
less benefactor  of  thousands  they  discredited  them- 
selves through  all  subsequent  ages.  It  must  have 
been  a  shock  to  the  unofficial  Jew  who  had  believed 
in  his  leaders  with  pathetic  persistence,  and  had 
made  it  a  part  of  his  religion  to  uphold  their  power. 

But  in  this  mixed  and  misguided  patriotism  was 
there  not  some  element  of  goodness  and  virtue  ? 
Why  vex  it?  Why  not  treat  this  posture  of  the 
common  mind  with  an  indulgent  tolerance  and  make 
it  a  little  easier  for  the  Jew  to  accept  a  crucified 
Messiah  ?  Why  must  this  sentiment,  which  led  the 
Jew   to    glory    in    the   religious    institutions    of    his 


282         THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS 

fatherland,  be  so  sorely  mortified?  For  three  chief 
reasons. 

This  submission  to  obsolete  authorities  closed  the 
mind  to  new  unfoldings  of  the  faith,  and  made  a 
progressive  religion  impossible.  If  the  Jew  had 
accepted  Christ,  and  retained  confidence  in  his  old 
leaders,  he  would  have  been  condemned  to  the  same 
limitation  of  vision  as  the  synagogues.  God  was  not 
going  to  impose  the  shortsightedness  of  the  ruling 
oligarchies  upon  the  redeemed  multitudes,  when 
fresh  and  wonderful  revelations  were  at  hand. 

Divine  Providence  could  only  save  Jew  and  Gentile 
by  saving  them  from  that  idolatry  of  visible  institutions 
which  tended  to  put  God  in  the  background.  The  Jew 
had  repudiated  the  image-worship  of  his  neighbours 
without  quite  escaping  the  taint  of  idolatry,  for  he 
had  given  much  of  the  glory,  which  belonged  to  God, 
to  His  visible  Church  and  its  institutions.  Corporate 
bodies,  claiming  a  Divine  sanction  for  their  enact- 
ments, had  come  between  the  human  soul  and  God, 
sometimes  alas  !  grievously  misinterpreting  the 
Divine  will.  Till  the  specious  centres,  around  which 
the  religious  loyalty  of  the  Jew  once  gathered,  had  been 
discredited  and  destroyed,  there  could  be  no  active 
response  and  submission  to  that  spiritual  headship, 
which  was  to  rule  the  new  life  of  faith  and  love. 
Those  who  were  to  inherit  the  blessings  of  the 
Redeemer's  kingdom,  must  be  brought  under  the 
immediate  instruction  and  guidance  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  this  could  only  be  effected  by  detaching 
them  from  the  past  and  its  standards  of  judgment. 

But  the  all-important  reason  was  that  the  Jew 
could  not  believe  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross,  as  the 
ground  of  his  salvation,  whilst  he  deferred    in    any 


THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS         283 

degree  to  the  religious  authority  which  had  com- 
manded his  reverence  in  bygone  days.  The  Sanhe- 
drim had  branded  Jesus  as  a  blasphemer,  and  had 
given  a  sentence  against  Him  that  was  legally  just 
if  the  count  could  be  proved.  To  uphold  its  prestige 
was  to  condemn  one  innocent  beyond  all  human 
example  —  one  whose  Divine  and  incomparable 
purity  was  to  expiate  universal  sin.  The  blood, 
which  was  to  hallow  the  soul  of  the  human  race, 
discredited  for  ever  those  representatives  of  a 
degenerate  Jewish  piety,  who  so  wickedly  shed  it. 
How  impossible  it  had  become  at  one  and  the  same 
time  to  believe  both  in  Jesus  and  the  Sanhedrim  ! 
Belief  in  the  resurrection,  and  in  all  the  signs  and 
wonders  which  accredited  it  to  those  who  were  not 
its  eye-witnesses,  was  incompatible  with  belief  in  the 
wisdom  and  justice  of  the  scribes  and  priests  who 
crucified  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory.  No  such 
sharp,  gigantic  and  appalling  alternative  had  ever 
presented  itself  in  human  history.  A  middle  course 
of  belief  in  the  Divine  authority  and  inspiration  of 
Jewish  officialism,  tempered  with  a  hesitating  half- 
belief  in  the  Victim  of  the  cross,  was  quite  impossible ; 
and  God  in  His  providence  meant  it  to  be  so.  All 
loyalty  to  the  corporate  institutions  of  the  past,  in  so 
far  as  they  were  assumed  to  be  validly  perpetuated 
in  contemporary  history,  took  away  from  loyalty  to 
Jesus  Christ,  and  divided  into  inert  fragments  the 
faith  which  was  due  to  His  sacrifice.  The  cross, 
whilst  a  symbol  of  redemption,  was,  at  the  same 
time,  an  unmistakable  sign  of  the  downfall  of  the 
Jewish  hierarchies.  Jesus  became  a  stumbling-block 
to  all  who  in  tempers  of  idolatry  and  self-righteous- 
ness refused  to  break  with  the  past.     Loyalty  to  a 


284         THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS 


defunct  religious  order  took  upon  it  the  colour  of 
participation  in  a  huge  crime,  and  no  man  could  find 
in  the  cross  a  power  of  Divine  redemption,  without 
being  made  to  feel  this.  The  prejudice  of  early 
Jewish  training,  which  might  seem  to  have  in  it  some 
of  the  ingredients  of  a  genuine  religion,  needed  to 
be  mortified. 

This  peril  did  not  cease  with  the  fall  of  the 
Jewish  commonwealth.  Men  still  put  a  strained 
emphasis  upon  the  visible,  and  so  exaggerate  the 
power  of  religious  corporations  and  their  leaders 
that  God  is  left  in  the  background,  and  His  immediate 
ministries  to  the  individual  soul  are  obscured  and 
despised.  Respect  for  the  traditional  authorities 
of  religion  may  be  carried  to  a  point  at  which 
ignoble  worldliness  and  unbelief  are  engendered. 
The  Church  itself,  with  all  the  pomp  and  ostentation 
of  its  organised  orders,  may  interpose  itself  between 
God  and  the  soul  of  an  age,  asking  a  reverence 
long  forfeited  by  repeated  acts  of  unfaithfulness. 
The  patriotism  which  upholds  a  Church  because 
it  is  national  rather  than  Christian — a  Church  which 
may  perchance  join  itself  with  the  music-hall  and 
the  drinking-bar  in  clamouring  for  innocent  blood 
— is  in  conflict  with  Divine  verities,  and  crucifies 
the  Son  of  God  afresh.  When  the  State  guides 
itself  by  counsels  of  political  expediency,  and  the 
Church  derives  its  mandate  from  such  a  State, 
the  religion  of  the  Man  who  died  upon  the  cross 
will  be  disparaged  and  despised.  It  is  some 
men's  boast  that  they  accept  the  Church  on  prac- 
tically the  same  ground  as  the  Jews  accepted  the 
institutions  of  their  fathers.  What  can  be  finer 
than    hereditary   loyalty  ?     Yes,  but    loyalty  to   the 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH   AFFRONTS         285 

Church  may  sometimes  be  incompatible  with 
loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ,  when  the  Church  loses 
its  responsiveness  to  the  spirit  of  its  Master  and 
strays  from  the  way  of  righteousness  and  humanity. 
The  doctrine  of  indelible  orders  has  often  led  men 
to  side  with  the  Church  against  the  great  Lord 
who  founded  it.  It  is  true  the  Church  is  visible, 
but  not  always  visible  in  one  place,  or  certified  by 
one  set  of  outward  tests.  If,  like  the  Jews,  we 
seek  it  thus,  we  mav  find  ourselves  allied  with  a 
body,  which,  whatever  its  historic  claims,  has  no 
present  union  with  the  living  Head.  Many  a 
man  becomes  alienated  from  Jesus  Christ  through 
blind  subjection  to  a  nominally  Christian  society, 
which  contradicts  the  principles  of  its  founder.  To 
idolise  a  school  of  priests,  to  put  our  reason  and 
our  conscience  into  commission  with  a  coterie  of 
teachers  may  end  in  despite  to  that  Divine  witness 
of  the  truth  which  is  in  every  man.  We  cannot 
properly  believe  in  the  freedom,  the  catholic 
grandeur,  the  saving  efficacy  of  the  Cross,  whilst 
we  kneel  at  the  feet  of  the  man  who  trafficks  in  its 
virtues.  The  idolatry  must  be  mortified  so  that  our 
life  may  rest  upon  spiritual  foundations.  He  who 
was  despised,  in  the  degenerate  days  of  the  Old 
Testament  Church,  may  sometimes  be  despised 
in  the  New.  Every  prejudice  which  divides  our 
loyalty  to  the  living  Lord,  and  detracts  from  the 
whole-heartedness  of  faith,  must  be  mortified. 

The  tastes  and  intellectual  prepossessions  of  men  are 
affronted  by  the  new  disclosures  of  the  gospel ;  and 
it  is  a  part  of  the  process  of  recovering  them  to 
humility  and  righteousness  that  it  should  be  so. 
"  Can    any   good   come    out    of    Nazareth  ? "      The 


286         THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS 

fine  disdain  expressed  in  the  question  was  a  wide- 
spread temper,  especially  amongst  the  learned.  The 
rough  hill-town  lacked  refinement,  and  was  no  true 
home  of  devotion  and  scholarship.  The  Scriptures 
themselves  had  not  spoken  of  it  as  the  birthplace 
of  a  prophet.  The  Jew  of  the  crowd,  whilst  not  slow 
to  greet  the  rabbi  and  honour  his  authority  as  an 
expert  on  certain  reserved  questions,  had  tenacious 
views,  on  which  he  was  accustomed  to  boast  himself. 
Intellectual  dogmatism  permeated  the  learned  and 
unlearned  classes  of  society  alike.  Pride  of  personal 
respectability  generally  brings  with  it  pride  of 
religious  knowledge  and  discernment.  The  multi- 
tudes of  our  Lord's  day  flocked  into  the  synagogues, 
and  were  well  indoctrinated  into  the  salient  truths 
of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  Whilst  leaving 
problems  of  casuistry  and  moot  interpretations  to 
the  scribes,  they  held  fast  to  well-defined  elements, 
for  which  they  claimed  the  highest  of  all  sanctions. 
What  more  could  be  needed  ?  The  system  was 
complete,  with  the  one  exception  of  a  Messiah 
who  should  bestow  political  autonomy.  No  ex- 
tension of  the  truths  of  the  past  into  new  realms 
was  either  necessary  or  possible.  The  tendency 
was  to  resent  anything  with  the  least  show  of 
strangeness  in  it.  It  made  people  angry,  for  to 
announce  the  new  implied  they  had  lacked  the 
insight  which  would  have  enabled  them  to  grasp 
it  before. 

And  this  temper  of  intellectual  complacency  was 
confirmed  by  the  observances  they  so  strenuously 
kept.  If  at  any  time  they  fell  short  of  perfec- 
tion the  conscience  was  appeased  when  they  had 
offered    the    prescribed    sacrifices.      Such    sacrifices 


THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS         287 


had  comforted  many  jTenerations.  But  now  Jesus 
implies  that  men  can  only  have  true  life  through 
the  sacrifice  He  was  shortly  to  offer  in  His  own 
person,  and  his  critics  burlesqued  the  doctrine, 
professing  to  find  in  it  some  degrading  cult, 
current  amongst  the  fabled  men-eaters.  "  How 
can  this  Man  give  us  His  flesh  to  eat  ? "  They 
could  not  accept  salvation  through  the  self-immola- 
tion of  a  fanatical  carpenter,  with  whose  offering 
they  must  come  into  mystical  fellowship.  Their 
system  of  thought  had  received  its  coping-stone  and 
afforded  no  room  for  such  revolting  novelties. 
Finality  had  been  reached,  and  the  message  of 
the  Cross  was  an  irrelevancy.  But  God  had  to 
mortify  this  tacit  assumption  of  infallibility.  Pride 
of  understanding  must  be  brought  low,  and  till  this 
was  realised  the  foundation-stone  of  the  new  kingdom 
must  seem  a  rock  of  offence. 

The  redemption  based  upon  sacrifice  is  still  a 
rock  of  intellectual  offence.  The  gospel  implies 
that  we  do  not  know  everything  about  ourselves 
and  sin,  and  the  suggestion  is  distasteful.  We  have 
been  trained  to  think,  and  some  kind  of  deference 
rather  than  a  regimen  of  humiliation  is  due  to  our 
training.  When  we  are  reminded  that  our  scheme 
of  thought  is  not  complete  without  the  Cross,  it 
goads  into  mental  revolt  and  insurgency.  The 
doctrine  of  vicariousness  affronts  that  temper  of 
independence,  which  we  have  thought  of  as  one 
of  the  highest  civic  virtues,  and  which  must  surely 
have  its  place  in  religion.  From  childhood  upwards 
we  have  surely  known  all  that  is  necessary  to  a  right 
relation  with  God,  and  we  resent  the  new.  We  are 
vexed  because  our  apprehension  is  baffled,  even  when 


288         THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS 

there  seems  to  be  little  or  no  leaven  of  self- 
righteousness  in  us.  After  the  heart  is  melted,  the 
conscience  appeased,  and  the  life  swayed  by  the 
genius  of  the  Cross,  the  reason  often  persists  in  its 
protest  and  dissent.  The  gospel  of  propitiation  is 
an  affront  to  our  intellectual  Pharisaism.  It  is 
said  that  plants  which  throve  upon  every  plain  in 
Europe  during  the  glacial  epoch  have  retreated  to 
the  tops  of  the  highest  mountains,  and  are  now  found 
only  above  the  snow-line.  And  this  offence  of  the 
Cross,  when  driven  from  the  melting  heart,  often 
entrenches  itself  on  the  highest  pinnacle  of  the 
intellect.  At  the  feet  of  this  ideal  Sufferer  our  pride 
and  our  self-complacency  vanish,  our  affections  are 
moved,  and  tears  fill  the  eyes  as  we  yield  to  the 
sublime  captivation.  We  have  little  or  no  doubt 
about  the  broad  outlines  of  the  history.  The  story 
of  the  Passion  is  one  of  the  sure  facts  no  sane 
criticism  can  impugn.  But  is  the  incident  specifically 
and  providentially  correlated  to  the  order  of  God's 
moral  government?  Do  we  receive  through  the 
Cross  blessings  which  could  not  otherwise  be  ours  ? 
Why  should  the  penalty  due  to  an  offending  race  be 
borne  by  a  Divine  representative  of  it?  Is  the 
vicarious  law  equitable  ?  How  can  we  fit  the  Cross 
into  a  well-considered  scheme  of  evolution  ?  Is  not 
the  spectacle  of  a  spotless  Victim,  convulsed  with  pain 
and  draining  to  the  dregs  the  cup  of  humiliation,  as 
He  hangs  between  earth  and  the  frowning  heavens,  a 
dishonour  to  the  , Divine  Sovereignty  ?  Why  should 
this  terrible  interpolation  come  into  the  life  of  a 
realm  over  which  the  azure  bends  and  where  sweet 
flowers  blow  ?  The  prejudice  has  retreated  to  some 
obscure  and  frozen  height  of  the  reason. 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH    AFFRONTS         289 

Not  infrequently  men  who  are  the  friends  of  Jesus, 
and  well-wishers  to  His  cause,  are  perplexed  by 
this  doctrine,  and  for  the  time  being  kept  back 
from  discipleship.  Specialised  studies  may  create 
an  intellectual  prejudice.  Those  who  have  been 
engaged  in  purely  scientific  researches  for  a  generation 
cannot  find  a  place  for  the  Cross  in  their  schemes 
of  thought.  They  have  been  absorbed  by  subjects 
in  which  the  ethical  factor  is  obscure,  if  not  wanting, 
and  they  formulate  no  analogies  which  can  help 
the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine.  It  is  perhaps  much 
easier  for  one  who  has  been  absorbed  in  the  study 
of  law,  jurisprudence,  history,  or  social  evolution,  to 
see  the  moral  significance  of  the  Cross  than  for  a  pure 
scientist.  We  are  offended.  The  elementary  truths 
of  religion  are  rational  and  have  the  authority  of 
primary  intuitions ;  but  at  last  we  reach  a  point 
when  the  old  logic  begins  to  fail.  Our  specialised 
methods  of  verification  hamper  us  and  perhaps 
become  a  spiritual  peril.  The  visitor  to  the  power- 
house of  an  electric  works  is  told  to  take  off  his  watch 
and  leave  it  outside  before  he  goes  near  the  dynamos. 
The  watch  may  be  of  the  highest  accuracy,  set  in 
jewels,  fitted  with  a  compensated  balance,  guaranteed 
to  keep  time  in  all  temperatures,  but  if  the  electric 
currents  reach  the  mainspring  it  will  be  deranged  and 
for  the  time  rendered  useless.  With  reason  in  the 
abstract,  the  doctrine  of  reconciliation  through  the 
sacrifice  of  Jesus  is  in  perfect  accord.  The  more 
richly  the  mind  develops,  the  less  incongruous  it  seems. 
But  reason,  as  we  find  it  in  ourselves,  is  sometimes 
deranged  by  the  currents  pulsing  through  the  blood, 
and  deflected  by  the  axioms  which  dominate  the 
worldly   societies  around  us.     W^e  have  to  lay  our 

20 


290         THE   SALVATION  WHICH   AFFRONTS 

boasted  reason  aside,  for  a  time  only  and  not  for  the 
entire  hereafter  of  our  lives.  We  are  humbled.  But 
why  should  we  protest  and  revolt?  If  the  tragedy 
of  the  Cross  was  once  unfathomable  to  the  first-born 
spirits  of  light,  who  long  desired  to  look  into  its 
meanings,  is  it  likely,  at  the  very  beginning,  to 
commend  itself  to  all  the  tastes  and  the  intellectual 
faculties  which  are  unfolding  themselves  within  us? 
What  approves  itself  to  the  infinite  reason  may 
perhaps  prove  an  intellectual  offence  to  us  in  the 
first  stage  of  our  training.  Indeed  it  must  do  so,  if 
we  contend  at  any  cost  for  the  sufficiency  of  our  own 
untrained  judgment  in  Divine  mysteries. 

In  both  Jew  and  Gentile  there  is  an  instinctive 
resentment  of  that  call  to  self-renunciation  which 
speaks  from  the  Cross  to  the  ends  of  the  world.  And 
this  resentment  is  no  mere  recoil  from  hardship  and 
self-denial,  but  a  proud  challenge  of  the  judgment 
passed  upon  man  by  treating  him  as  a  subject  for 
chastisement  and  humiliation.  The  violent  death  of 
the  Galilean  reformer  brought  to  the  Jew  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  national  aspirations  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  cherish.  He  looked  for  happiness  and 
much  outward  prosperity,  and  the  Messiah,  of  whom 
he  had  dreamed,  was  to  inaugurate  a  true  golden 
age.  This  view  of  the  work  of  the  deliverer,  which 
had  been  slowly  growing  for  centuries,  was  not  an 
intellectual  miscalculation  only,  but  had  borrowed  its 
salient  features  from  the  self-complacency  of  the 
race.  It  is  vividly  illustrated  in  the  demeanour  of 
the  rich  young  ruler,  whose  outward  virtues  attracted 
Jesus.  He  had  been  trusting  in  a  faultless  obedience 
to  the  letter,  and,  after  the  fashion  of  his  class,  he 
doubtless  looked  upon  great  possessions   as  a  sign 


THE  SALVATION   WHICH   AFFRONTS         291 

of  approval  put  by  Heaven  upon  his  scrupulous 
rectitude  and  the  rectitude  of  his  fathers.  The 
Master's  word  was  intended  to  mortify  his  tacit 
Pharisaism.  To  strip  himself  of  all  that  he  had, 
was  to  admit  unworthiness  of  the  gifts  lavished  upon 
him,  and  to  confess  that  his  piety,  however  sufficient 
on  its  temple-side,  lacked  social  perfection,  for  he 
must  needs  give  to  the  poor.  His  slowness  to  accept 
the  law  of  renunciation  was  rooted  in  self-esteem. 
He  surely  deserved  something  more  than  the 
privations  of  a  starveling  disciple.  Jesus  could  not 
conciliate  His  prejudice,  but  must  needs  prove  a 
foundation  against  which  the  youth  tripped,  perhaps 
only  for  a  time.  And  from  the  days  of  the  Greeks 
to  our  own  time,  this  same  indulgent,  self-glorifying 
temper,  has  been  at  the  root  of  that  light-hearted 
naturalism,  which  men  hold  as  a  legitimate  ideal. 
Why  should  we  deny  ourselves  ?  It  is  true  there 
is  a  morbid  and  unchristian  asceticism,  but  the  spirit 
of  the  man  who  feels  that  he  is  not  worthy  of  the 
least  of  all  the  Lord's  mercies  is  sometimes  described 
as  ascetic.  The  revolt  against  the  pain  which  is 
disciplinary,  rather  than  a  result  of  human  tyranny 
and  selfishness,  rests  in  part  upon  the  assumption 
that  we  have  fitted  ourselves  for  a  better  lot.  The 
new  life  in  Christ  must  begin  in  shame,  unconditional 
abasement,  the  confession  of  unworthiness,  and  unless 
we  know  ourselves  this  new  foundation  is  a  stone  of 
stumbling.  Why  should  we  practise  self-denial  and 
join  the  cross-bearers  ?  Because  it  is  thus  that  we 
acknowledge  ourselves  sinners,  and  through  this 
shame  of  the  moment  escape  eternal  contempt. 

Another  fateful  prejudice,  which  God  often  needs 
to  cross  by  His  sovereign  grace,  is  that  which  we  have 


292  THE   SALVATION  WHICH    AFFRONTS 

formed  concerning  the  manner  of  our  entrance  into 
His  kingdom.  This  is  perhaps  one  of  the  last 
lingering  symptoms  of  that  uprising  pride  which 
makes  us  stumble.  When  we  are  convinced  it  is  by- 
grace,  free  and  unalloyed,  that  we  must  be  saved, 
many  of  us  still  want  to  reserve  to  ourselves  some 
right  of  choice.  We  are  admittedly  undeserving,  and 
yet  surely  we  may  prescribe  the  regimen  under 
which  we  shall  be  placed  for  our  soul's  good.  The 
Jew  knew  the  kind  of  Messiah  he  wanted,  and 
thought  he  had  the  right  to  insist  upon  one  after  his 
own  specifications.  He  wished  to  be  dealt  with 
in  consonance  with  the  usage  and  tradition  of  his 
history.  He  did  not  dream  that  the  new  theophany 
would  flash  upon  him  in  a  common  guest-chamber, 
or  amidst  the  din  and  babble  of  a  street  crowd. 
It  would  have  been  more  seemly  in  the  temple. 
The  Syrian  leper  thought  it  would  be  equally 
efficacious  if  he  washed  in  the  rivers  of  his  fatherland, 
as  they  splashed  cool  from  the  snows  of  Lebanon  and 
with  the  scent  of  orchards  lingering  about  their 
banks.  He  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  washing  in 
the  turgid  stream  of  a  third-rate  power.  Some  men 
think  it  is  not  quite  correct  to  be  saved  outside  the 
walls  of  the  national  Church,  yet  perhaps  it  is  in  a 
tent  at  Keswick,  or  on  a  hillside  in  Wales,  that  they 
enter  into  the  rest  of  faith.  The  man  who  looks  for 
the  channel  of  the  new  life  at  the  sacramental  table 
sometimes  finds  it  at  a  lowly  mission,  and  the  man 
who  expects  to  find  it  at  a  revival  has  to  go  for  the 
gift  to  the  sacramental  table.  Trivial  prejudices  are 
often  an  offshoot  of  pride,  and  God  cannot  pamper 
them.  The  edge  of  humiliation  might  be  taken  away 
if  we  could  choose  the  method  by  which  God's  grace 


THE   SALVATION  WHICH   AFFRONTS         293 

operates  upon  our  natures.  One  man  desires  for 
himself  a  conversion  in  harmony  with  his  ideas  of 
Church  order,  and  speaks  of  growing  into  the 
consciousness  of  the  new  hfe,  as  behoves  quiet 
and  refined  people.  Perhaps  he  shrinks  from  the 
publicity  of  confession  and  in  his  preference  there 
is  a  temper  of  pride.  Another  man  wants  portents 
to  wait  upon  his  entrance  into  the  kingdom.  A  new 
star  must  shine  over  his  spiritual  birthplace.  The 
heavens  must  open  in  mysterious  vision.  The 
spiritual  change  must  lend  itself  to  vivid  narrative. 
This  also  is  pride.  One  seeker  after  God  cannot  shed 
a  tear,  but  another  finds  strong  emotions  come  un- 
bidden, and  he  would  have  it  otherwise.  All  these 
caprices  are  bred  of  the  old  insidious  self-worship, 
and  it  would  be  no  true  salvation  if  God  were  to 
flatter  our  wilfulness  by  His  methods  of  bringing  us 
into  the  kingdom.  His  ways  cross  the  grain  in  every 
detail.  Till  the  last  bit  of  the  old  unyielding  vanity 
is  gone  from  our  natures  the  stone  laid  in  Zion  will 
be  a  stone  of  stumbling. 

Let  it  not  be  said,  or  even  thought,  that  God 
is  treating  us  with  superfluous  harshness,  because  in 
His  saving  wisdom  He  sees  fit  to  wound  our  proud, 
silly  prepossessions.  He  could  not  do  otherwise 
because  the  inward  discipline  is  necessary  for  our 
renewal  into  a  better  life.  Our  prejudices  are  not 
infallible  that  they  should  have  such  careful  re- 
spect shown  to  them.  Unless  eradicated  they  may 
embarrass  our  future  advancement.  You  do  not 
impugn  the  Creator's  pity  because  He  has  lodged  in 
the  earth  elements  some  of  which  have  the  power  to 
blight,  crush,  or  destroy  ;  but  you  might  have  reason 
for  complaint  had   He  left   you    void    of  senses    to 


294         THE   SALVATION  WHICH   AFFRONTS 

detect  and  announce  these  dangers.  He  who  perishes 
through  the  destructive  forces  sleeping  in  nature, 
perishes  through  inattention  to  the  danger-signals  of 
the  senses,  at  least  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a 
hundred.  God  has  given  us  timely  warning  of  the 
prejudices  which  war  against  salvation,  and  it  is  the 
infatuation  of  a  stiff-necked  pride  which  makes  us 
heedless  of  His  warning,  to  our  own  overthrow.  The 
Jews  to  whom  Jesus  was  a  stumbling-block  were 
warned  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  by  the  Psalmist,  by 
the  aged  Simeon,  who  spake  of  the  Divine  Child  as 
set  for  the  rising  and  falling  of  many  in  Israel  and 
for  a  sign  that  should  be  spoken  against.  They  were 
warned  again  and  again  by  the  Lord  Himself  The 
faithless  Israel  was  not  surprised  into  destruction.  He 
was  not  victimised  by  the  illusions  of  a  child-like 
innocence.  The  ill-fated  people  had  ample  oppor- 
tunity of  ridding  themselves  of  their  prejudices  and 
of  escaping  the  doom  to  which  unteachable  tempers 
led.  In  seeking  to  save  us  by  His  Son,  God  puts 
Himself  against  our  evil  prepossessions  and  burns 
out  the  nerve  of  our  perverted  sensibilities.  If  we 
harden  ourselves  in  notions,  which  run  counter  to 
our  salvation,  we  are  at  least  forearmed  against  the 
danger.  Prejudices  often  grow  in  stubborn  fixity  with 
our  years.  They  occupy  the  empty  place  of  our  dis- 
possessed passions.  To  suffer  a  prejudice  to  grow 
into  intractibility  may  put  the  soul  into  peril.  It  was 
prejudice  in  Judas  which  masked  in  specious  shows 
of  patriotism  and  philanthropy  his  insidious  avarice. 
It  blinded  him  to  the  depths  of  evil  in  his  own  soul 
and  equipped  him  for  his  crime.  Naaman  stumbled 
at  God's  method  for  the  moment  and  felt  his  sentiment 
of  nationality   outraged,   but   he   recovered   himself 


THE   SALVATION   WHICH   AFFRONTS         295 

before  it  was  too  late,  and  went  back  to  his  friends 
unashamed.  Nathaniel  held  to  his  early  prejudice 
against  Nazareth  with  a  light  hand  and  confessed 
Jesus,  "  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God " ;  and  he  has 
been  recompensed  with  a  responsive  confession  in 
the  presence  of  the  Father  and  is  not  put  to  shame. 
Building  upon  this  foundation  many  rise  into  eternal 
honour,  whilst  others  find  Jesus  a  rock  of  offence  and 
stumble  in  darkness  and  woe. 


XV 
THE  RELIGIOUS  FORMALIST 

"This  people  draw  nigh  unto  Me  with  their  mouth,  and 
honoureth  Me  with  their  lips ;  but  their  heart  is  far  from 
Me." — Matt.  xv.  8. 

"  Having  a  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power  there- 
of."—2  Tim.  Hi.  5. 

Form  is  not  without  its  value,  if  the  forces  of  life 
have  free  course  through  its  channels.  Indeed  all 
life  requires  organic  embodiment  for  its  manifestation, 
although  mere  form,  as  we  know  too  well,  does  not 
always  imply  life.  Habits  of  devotion  inculcated  in 
childhood  and  practised  in  the  after-days  bring  men 
into  the  paths  where  God  and  His  saving  gifts  are 
most  often  found.  Conscientious  attendance  upon 
the  ordinances  of  religion  keeps  the  soul  within  range 
of  those  mystic  forces  which  tend  to  spiritualise 
and  sanctify.  Public  worship  needs  symbolic  acts, 
appointed  hours  and  seasons,  confessions  of  a  common 
faith,  bodily  gestures  and  attitudes,  through  which 
the  thoughts  of  many  minds  are  confederated  into 
unison  and  fellowship.  By  conformity  to  religious 
customs,  when  the  conformity  is   disinterested   and 

sincere,  men   remind   themselves  and  the  watching 

296 


THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  297 


world  of  obligations  to  the  Supreme  Being  under 
which  all  alike  are  placed.  Rites  and  ceremonies 
may  be  a  tribute  of  priceless  significance  to  the  claim 
God  has  upon  the  homage  of  His  creatures.  Form  is 
the  providential  organism  made  ready  for  the  breath 
from  heaven  when  it  surges  into  human  societies  and 
suffuses  them  with  the  mysteries  of  a  Divine  life.  A 
man  who  ruthlessly  tramples  underfoot  those  pre- 
scribed habits  and  traditions  of  worship,  which  to 
many  of  us  are  real  channels  of  grace,  is  not  likely 
to  know  much  of  the  power  of  godliness. 

But  in  every  age  form  has  its  perils.  It  may  offer 
a  false  centre  for  human  thought  and  hope,  arresting 
the  soul  in  its  progress  towards  invisible  relations. 
It  may  be  mimetic  and  meretricious.  It  may  be  a 
monumental  lie  making  a  vain  parade  and  pretence 
of  life,  where  life  is  woefully  lacking.  It  may  be  a 
palliative  of  the  conscience  when  that  faculty  needs 
to  be  provoked  into  activity  by  vigorous  expostulation, 
and  to  soothe  may  be  fatal.  How  often  is  the  form 
a  shrine  whose  treasures  have  been  rifled  and  replaced 
by  paste  jewels  which  cozen  the  eye  with  an  illusive 
show !  It  is  only  too  possible  to  have  temple,  altar, 
and  a  legitimate  priesthood  when  the  sentence  of 
spiritual  desolation  has  gone  forth.  If  there  was  no 
hollowness  in  the  routine  pieties  of  Christendom 
the  Church  would  be  a  vaster  power  than  Cabinet 
Councils,  the  chamber  where  knees  bend  in  prayer 
would  reflect  greater  issues  than  the  Stock  Exchange, 
and  the  hour  of  the  world's  redemption  would  be 
making  ready  to  sound. 

The  reproach  our  Lord  addressed  to  the  scribes, 
pointing  it  as  He  did  with  words  from  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  proves  that  the  bias  towards  formalism  was  no 


298  THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST 


new  symptom  in  Jewish  life,  but  had  been  at  work 
for  centuries.  The  proneness  to  unreality  was  perhaps 
one  of  the  evils  inseparable  from  an  elaborately 
systematised  code  of  worship,  or  at  least  statutory 
ceremonialism  furnished  the  peculiar  conditions  under 
which  this  tendency  of  human  nature  forced  itself 
into  view.  All  the  prestige  of  the  State,  too,  was 
used  in  favour  of  these  august  and  complex  func- 
tions, into  which  the  simple  faith  of  the  patriarchs 
had  at  last  evolved  itself.  It  was  chiefly  against 
this  peril  that  the  prophets  were  constrained  to 
lift  up  their  voices,  so  bringing  themselves  into 
positions  of  more  or  less  sharp  antagonism  with 
the  priests. 

Writing  to  Timothy,  St.  Paul  declares  his  convic- 
tion that,  sooner  or  later,  the  selfsame  tendency  was 
sure  to  reveal  itself  in  this  new  and  highly  spiritual- 
ised form  of  faith  it  had  been  his  lifework  to  spread. 
Perhaps  for  the  moment  the  peril  was  not  acute.  The 
apostle  was  labouring  in  hard  and  stormy  scenes 
which  were  not  by  any  means  congenial  to  the  growth 
of  pretence,  decorous  routine,  and  mere  formality. 
Sometimes,  indeed,  he  met  with  cases  of  flagrant, 
shameless  imposture  which  overpassed  the  average 
limits  of  specious,  self-deceiving  religion  ;  but  they 
were  comparatively  rare.  Men  had  nothing  to  gain 
by  an  insincere  profession  of  the  faith.  When  the 
gospel  is  first  promulgated  amongst  races  strongly 
wedded  to  their  own  superstitions,  the  acceptance  of 
it  involves  civic  and  social  disabilities,  perhaps  indeed 
terrible  and  unrelenting  persecution,  which  help  to 
sift  out  the  sanctimonious  make-believes.  If  a  new 
convert  should  measure  his  interests  in  the  terms  of 
current  temporalities,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  he  must 


THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  299 

obviously  prove  himself  a  loser.  Unless  he  have 
those  inward  satisfactions  which  wait  upon  a  complete 
surrender  to  the  will  of  God,  he  is  not  likely  to  pay 
the  price  involved. 

But  the  apostle  knew  that  the  times  would  change. 
The  predominant  opinion  of  the  communities  he  was 
striving  to  evangelise  must  assuredly,  one  day,  be 
on  the  side  of  the  gospel.  Jesus  was  not  always  to 
rank  as  a  Jewish  outcast,  but  kings  would  make  haste 
to  bow  at  His  feet  and  offer  their  gifts.  When  those 
in  high  places  came  to  accept  His  nominal  authority 
the  old  danger  was  destined  to  return.  The  change 
is  not  altogether  to  the  good  when  religion  goes 
in  its  silver  slippers.  The  undesirables  affect  friend- 
ship with  it.  The  formalism,  into  which  Judaism 
had  again  and  again  degenerated,  would  then 
threaten  Christianity  itself,  for  no  system  is  so  vital 
as  to  be  permanently  immune  from  the  peril.  Men 
would  be  attracted  by  its  worship,  hail  its  institu- 
tions, conform  to  the  popular  interpretation  of  its 
behests,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  set  themselves 
to  conciliate  the  old  indwelling  lusts.  This  always 
produces  the  formalist.  Men  use  the  watchwords 
of  the  Church,  prostrate  themselves  in  its  assemblies, 
subscribe  to  the  theory  of  its  admirable  ethic,  and 
yet  refuse  to  accept  the  spirit  of  Jesus  as  a  supreme, 
authoritative,  and  vitalising  force  in  their  lives. 

Another  consideration,  perhaps,  entered  into  this 
wider  outlook.  Both  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
Churches,  at  different  epochs  of  their  history,  were 
more  or  less  influenced  by  the  precedents  of  heathen 
religion.  Intercourse  with  both  Babylon  and  Rome 
tended  to  establish,  amongst  the  worshippers  of  the 
Most    High,  tests   and    standards   of  devotion    not 


300  THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST 


always  helpful  to  spirituality.  The  claim  of  the 
great  world-religions  of  antiquity  was  satisfied  by 
pomp,  dramatic  movement,  extraneous  service.  If 
the  object  of  worship  might  be  seen,  handled,  felt, 
regaled  with  odours,  fed  up  with  sacrifices,  well 
pleased  with  wine,  it  was  natural  to  assume  that 
the  rules  of  the  temple  might  be  fulfilled  in  terms 
of  the  sensuous  life,  and  that  it  was  an  over-refine- 
ment to  set  up  severe  inward  standards  of  thought 
and  feeling  beyond  the  reach  of  the  crowd.  Whilst 
a  people's  notions  of  God  are  unspiritual,  and  He 
is  regarded  chiefly  as  a  dispenser  of  temporal  bless- 
ings, and  not  as  a  Being  of  vivid  moral  attributes, 
it  is  obvious  that  conformity  to  the  letter  of  a  rite 
will  suffice  for  an  acceptable  service.  If  a  visible 
object  of  devotion  is  visibly  honoured,  that  is  enough. 
The  result  follows  amongst  many  races  that  religious 
and  ethical  ideas  move  on  distinct  lines,  and  lan- 
guage is  used  which  baffles  those  who  are  the 
adherents  of  a  more  spiritual  worship. 

In  some  countries  of  the  East,  a  man  who  lies, 
cheats,  steals,  and  lives  in  loathsome  sensualities,  is 
described  as  of  great  sanctity,  because  he  practises 
austerities,  is  punctilious  in  the  invocation  of  a 
favourite  god,  and  is  stirred  with  consuming  enthu- 
siasm for  a  self-chosen  cult.  His  observances  are 
counted  for  much,  and  questions  of  practical  conduct 
do  not  find  place,  on  either  the  debtor  or  creditor 
side  of  his  reputation.  In  the  olden  days,  when 
the  isolation  of  the  race  was  broken  down,  and  the 
Jew  came  into  intimate  converse  with  surrounding 
nations,  he  could  not  but  be  in  danger  of  adopting 
their  conventional  estimates  and  engaging  in  a 
routine  of  rites  and  offerings,  which  would  tend  to 


THE    RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  301 


make  Jehovah-worship  a  more  or  less  hollow  show. 
And  this  experience  was  repeated  in  apostolic  and 
sub-apostolic  times.  Whilst  the  drift  towards  for- 
malism is  one  of  the  chronic  infirmities  of  human 
nature,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  drift  was 
accelerated  into  a  tremendous  peril  by  the  traditions, 
which  new  and  half-taught  converts  brought  with 
them  into  the  Christian  Church.  The  old  habit  of 
putting  stress  upon  outward  rites,  whilst  forgetting 
that  acceptable  service  must  have  its  springs  in  the 
power  of  a  new  life,  was  often  persistent,  tenacious, 
despotic.  This  peril  is  still  in  our  midst,  and  its 
spread  is  often  fostered  by  those  histrionic  develop- 
ments into  which  worship  sometimes  runs.  The 
genius  of  heathenism  wins  back  its  old  ascendancy 
even  within  the  Christian  Church,  and  form  is  ac- 
counted of  equal  value  with  that  conscious  sense  of 
spiritual  things  in  which  real  discipleship  consists. 

This  tendency  to  formalism  is  inherent  in  the 
temperament  of  the  race,  and  does  not  show  itself 
in  the  sphere  of  religion  only.  We  find  it  in  art 
and  literature,  in  the  rules  which  regulate  social 
intercourse,  and  in  secular  morals.  It  might  be  in- 
vidious, although  by  no  means  difficult,  to  name 
writers  of  eminence  who  are  stylists,  artistic  phrase- 
makers,  manicures  devoted  to  the  task  of  beauti- 
fying with  patient  fastidiousness  the  mean  and  the 
insignificant.  Vast  talents  and  the  best  oppor- 
tunities of  a  lifetime  have  been  spent  in  polishing 
adjectives  and  mounting  them  into  shining 
sentences,  just  as  the  lapidary  deals  with  the  agates 
and  rubies  of  his  craft.  The  form  has  been  all  in 
all,  and  the  substance  a  frivolous  incident  of  the 
process.      A  just  classification  of  these  writers  would 


302  THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST 

perhaps  put  them  into  the  guild  of  filagree  workers. 
What  is  the  sum  of  the  message  taught  with  such 
laboured  and  painful  elegance  ?  Half  a  dozen 
truisms.  One  is  sometimes  amazed  at  the  meagre 
thought  hidden  by  folios  of  graceful,  balanced, 
opulent  diction. 

This  tendency  to  illusive  formalism  shows  itself 
in  the  codes  of  etiquette  observed  amongst  the 
castes  and  nationalities  of  both  Europe  and  Asia. 
Men  in  rags,  and  coated  with  every  variety  of  filth, 
address  each  other  in  long-drawn,  honorific  titles. 
Much  is  professed,  flatteries  flow  like  rivers  of  oil, 
gifts  are  offered  not  intended  for  acceptance,  and 
the  plain  outsider,  who  has  not  been  taught  to 
reckon  for  the  traditional  rebates  and  discounts, 
is  taken  in.  These  effusive,  resonant  euphemisms 
are  pretence  and  stale  custom  only  and  may  some- 
times hold  malignity  and  contempt.  The  instigator 
of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  Nana  Sahib,  was  suave  and 
insinuating,  and  had  been  a  smiling,  plausible, 
popular  guest  in  high  circles  of  Anglo-Indian  society. 
In  some  countries  it  takes  years  to  learn  how  little 
is  signified  by  sonorous  exaggerations,  compliments, 
and  courtesy  titles.  A  society  rotten  to  the  core 
may  now  and  again  chance  to  be  squeamish  in  its 
superficial  sentiments  and  ban  a  vulgar  phrase  or 
a  lapse  in  taste  more  severely  than  flagrant  trans- 
gression. It  affects  the  airs  of  the  professional 
saint,  whilst  at  heart  it  is  coarser  than  the  swine. 
Men  drill  and  school  themselves  into  codes  of  correct 
behaviour,  and  a  huge  void  yawns  where  we  expect 
to  find  the  first  essentials  of  character.  This  weak- 
ness is  pointed  out  in  one  of  the  letters  of  Junius. 
Addressing  a  nobleman  of  his  day,  he  says,  "That 


THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  303 


you  are  a  civil,  polite  person,  is  true.  Few  men 
understand  the  little  morals  better  or  observe  the 
great  ones  less  than  your  lordship."  Eastern 
lawgivers,  who  base  their  teaching  upon  elementary 
instincts  and  affections,  are  not  slow  to  note  this 
universal  tendency  to  pretence.  The  sages  of  China, 
two  thousand  five  hundred  years  ago,  found  it 
necessary  to  denounce  the  son  whose  filial  piety 
consisted  in  lavish  funeral  rites,  whilst  his  life 
had  been  one  long  inward  rebellion  against  those 
who  had  the  first  claim  to  be  honoured.  Con- 
fucianism, no  less  than  Judaism,  and  Christianity, 
has  had  to  battle  with  all  the  weaknesses  and  temp- 
tations which  tend  to  evolve  the  formalist.  Human 
nature  finds  it  easy  to  forget  its  defects  and 
deformities  when  it  has  covered  them  over  for  years 
with  a  rich,  embroidered  robe  of  stately  rites  and 
ceremonies. 

By  putting  ourselves  into  attitudes  which  express 
certain  groups  of  emotions,  it  is  possible  to  call 
forth  a  simulated  experience  of  those  emotions. 
Postures  and  bodily  movements  suitable  to  the 
lighter  moods  of  the  mind  stimulate  a  vague,  un- 
reasoning sense  of  pleasure,  whilst  acts  expressive 
of  grief  bring  into  the  mind  a  sense  of  undefined 
depression.     A  French  psychologist  has  said  : — 

"  We  know  that  various  emotions  show  themselves 
in  certain  spontaneous  movements  and  attitudes  of 
the  body,  which  constitute  their  natural  expression. 
Emotion  is  the  cause  ;  the  movements  are  the  effect. 
It  is  less  generally  known  that  the  movements 
and  attitudes  of  the  body,  artificially  produced,  are 
capable  of  exciting  the  corresponding  emotions. 
Remain   for   some   time   in   an   attitude   of  sadness 


304  THE    RELIGIOUS    FORMALIST 

and  you  will  feel  sad  :  by  mingling  in  cheerful 
society  and  regulating  your  outward  behaviour  in 
accordance  with  it  you  may  awaken  in  yourself  a 
transient  gaiety.  If  the  arm  of  a  hypnotised  sub- 
ject is  placed  with  a  clenched  fist  in  a  threatening 
attitude  the  corresponding  expression  appears  in  the 
face  and  the  rest  of  the  body.  Here  the  movement 
is  the  cause  and  the  emotion  the  effect.  There  is  an 
indissoluble  association  between  a  given  movement 
and  a  given  feeling.  Emotion  excites  movement — 
movement  excites  emotion,  but  with  this  very  im- 
portant difference  :  that  movements  are  not  always 
capable  of  exciting  emotion,  and  when  they  do 
succeed  the  states  they  bring  about  are  neither 
intense  nor  permanent." 

This  curious  fact,  in  which  we  may  have  repro- 
duced an  ancestral  association  between  a  posture 
and  the  emotion  it  symbolised,  is  not  without  a 
bearing  upon  the  subject  of  religious  formalism. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  certain  acts  tend  to 
generate  religiosity,  and  that  such  feeling,  when 
experienced,  is  brief,  and  brings  no  genuine  accession 
of  power  to  the  deeper  religious  life.  The  more 
superficial  sentiments  of  piety,  a  simulation  of 
reverence,  rapt  moods  of  soul,  tremors  of  faith  and 
love,  even  transports  of  ecstasy  may  be  propagated 
from  the  bodily  circumference  of  the  being,  rather 
than  evolved  from  its  mystic  centres.  We  need  to 
be  on  our  guard  lest  these  insidious  symptoms, 
from  which  a  certain  degree  of  devotional  gratifi- 
cation may  be  derived,  should  deceive  and  betray 
us.  The  whirlings  of  the  dervish,  the  prostration  of 
the  Christian  devotee  in  scenes  of  subduing  colour 
combined    with    undulating    music,    the    measured. 


THE    RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  305 


martial  processional  hymn,  the  systematised  method 
and  the  loud  ejaculations  of  the  revival,  may  foster 
what  is  specious  and  short-lived.  But  true  religious 
emotion,  sweet  and  vivifying  as  the  dew,  must  issue 
out  of  great  spiritual  facts  grasped  with  unrelaxing 
faith,  and  lend  itself  to  strict  moral  tests.  There 
is  danger  both  in  elaborated  ritual  and  in  uncon- 
ventional simplicity.  Religious  acts  which  once 
represented  life  may,  after  an  interval  of  years,  cease 
to  do  so,  and  the  faint  emotion  they  call  forth  may 
be  a  surface  ripple  rather  than  a  tidal  throb  from 
the  infinite  deeps.  We  may  get  misleading  satis- 
factions from  the  accidents  of  the  outward  regimen 
into  which  we  have  schooled  ourselves.  It  is  only 
by  the  fresh  inflow  of  grace,  which  continually 
quickens  and  saves,  that  we  can  be  kept  from 
corrupt  and  pernicious  formalisms. 

There  is  a  formalism,  akin  perhaps  to  infirmity 
rather  than  spiritual  transgression,  which  arises  from 
those  instinctive  economies  of  nervous  force  which 
run  side  by  side  with  the  successive  stages  of  our 
growth.  Nature  prompts  us  to  do  many  things  with 
the  least  possible  expenditure  of  thought  and  vital 
activity  ;  and  religion  is  apt  to  slip  into  this  category, 
and  at  first,  perhaps,  there  may  be  little  or  no  moral 
obliquity  in  the  process.  It  is  a  part  of  the  habit  of 
self-preservation  to  hold  in  reserve  the  latent  forces 
of  our  organic  life,  and  existence  would  be  impossible 
if  every  daily  act  demanded  an  equally  intense 
concentration  of  our  powers  upon  its  performance. 
Acts  which  were  once  conscious  and  intentional, 
like  the  putting-on  of  spectacles,  the  winding-up  of 
a  watch  at  bedtime,  the  separation  of  words  into 
distinct  letters  whilst  reading,  tend  to  become  auto- 

21 


3o6  THE   RELIGIOUS  FORMALIST 

matic  ;  and  we  do  them  at  last  without  formulated 
purpose  or  reflection.  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  we  are 
told,  had  a  trick  of  touching  alternate  posts  as  he 
walked  through  the  streets — a  trick  to  which  the 
inner  faculties  of  the  mind  were  scarcely  consenting 
parties.  We  call  the  phenomenon  "  unconscious 
cerebration,"  and  the  symptom  makes  itself  evi- 
dent in  religion  as  much  as  in  other  departments 
of  human  activity.  The  rosary  was  devised  by  the 
Buddhists,  and  adopted  by  certain  sects  of  Christians, 
to  tell  the  tale  of  prayers  that  were  tending  to  be- 
come somnolent,  languid,  half-conscious  mutterings. 
Even  good  men  acquire  slovenly  tricks  of  mind,  and 
are  not  equally  real  and  earnest  at  all  times.  It  is 
said  that  it  takes  an  unpractised  priest  a  full  hour  to 
go  through  all  the  minutiae  of  High  Mass,  but  after 
many  repetitions  he  can  discharge  the  office  in  twenty 
minutes.  In  speeding  up  the  performance,  it  is 
obvious  that  more  or  less  conscious  movements  of 
the  mind  and  body  must  be  replaced  by  subconscious. 
Such  an  accomplishment  surely  has  its  perils.  It 
is  with  the  object  of  guarding  against  the  facile 
formalism,  which  comes  from  use  and  wont,  that 
in  some  parishes  of  the  Scottish  Highlands,  the 
sacrament  is  celebrated  only  once  a  year.  The 
temptation  begins  just  as  soon  as  a  routine  is 
established,  which  makes  no  demand  on  the  finer 
energies  of  the  spirit.  Human  nature  is  readier 
to  give  of  that  which  is  outward  than  of  the  con- 
science, the  will  and  the  supreme  submission  of  the 
soul.  The  most  exacting  outward  rite  is  easier  than 
the  rudimentary  acts  of  spiritual  obedience. 

The  spirit  of  unresting  progress  is  the  best  defence 
against    this    temptation    to    religious   automatism. 


THE    RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  307 

The   soul   becomes    a    mere    whirligig    when    it    is 
altogether  centred  in  the  trite   and   the  old,  and  the 
romance  of  the  new  fails  to  win  and  engage  its  dull, 
undeveloped  powers.     Servile,  unthinking  conformity 
to  a  prescribed  rite  may  stupefy  the  higher  conscious 
activities,  producing   a  string-moved  puppet,  rather 
than  a  child  of  God,  able  to  grow  into  ever  higher 
perfection,  with  the   growing   grace   and    revelation 
of  the  ages.     Religion,  with  no  principle  of  expansion 
at  its  centre,  degenerates  into  a  vain,  tiresome  show 
of  devoutness,  as  much  outside  the  real  nature  of  the 
man  as  a  Thibetan  praying-mill.     Prayer  itself  may 
stagnate  through  the  monotony  of  its  interests  and 
the   narrow   groove  within  which  it   moves.     Fresh 
ideas   and    inspirations    are    needed    to    guard   our 
holy  things  from  sameness,  insipidity,  and  corruption. 
Well-meant  routine  may  be  humdrum,  servile,  soul- 
less.    Some  samples  of  piety  belong  to  the  category 
of  clockwork.     A  short  time  ago,  in  one  of  the  city 
shops,  cycling  costumes  were  advertised.     The  made- 
up  figure  of  a  lady  faultlessly  clad,  was  seated  in  the 
saddle  of  a  fine  machine.     The  feet  were  in  proper 
position,  pedal,  crank,  and  wheel  ran  smoothly  all  the 
day  long,  but  the  working  model  was  a  feat  in  mec- 
hanics and  no  progress  was  made.     Passing  the  shop 
window  a  week  later  one  might  still  see  the  placid, 
wax-faced  lady  at  her  task,  free  from  dust,  in  no  hurry, 
and  disdainful  of  fatigue.     No  milestones  had  been 
passed,  no  records  broken,  no  silver  trophies  won.     It 
was  round  upon  round,  without  romance  or  meaning, 
the  perpetual  turning  of  the  wheel,  without  any  gain 
in    mileage.     Such    scenes    we  may  perhaps  see   in 
our  churches,  as  well  as  in  shop  windows,  if  we  look 
with    discerning    eyes ;    perhaps   even    in  the  soul- 


3o8  THE    RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST 

mirror  within  us.  There  is  an  endless  round  of 
service,  communions,  district  visitings,  many  prayers, 
but  no  perceptible  gain.  Where  the  standing-ground 
of  the  soul  is  one  and  the  same  with  that  occupied 
twenty  years  before,  there  is  always  a  strong  suspicion 
of  automatism.  A  show  of  diligent  letter-service 
meets  the  eye  but  no  nearer  movement  towards 
God,  or  fuller  participation  in  His  life  has  been 
achieved.  The  first  foundations,  with  their  ritual 
elements,  are  ever  being  laid  anew,  and  there  is  no 
daring  stride  towards  perfection.  We  have  need  to 
ask  ourselves.  Is  our  religion  one  whit  better  than 
formalism? 

But  the  formalism  denounced  by  Jesus  and  His 
apostles  is  that  under  whose  fair  surface  the  temper 
of  habitual  sin  conceals  its  venom  and  inward 
obliquity.  Religion,  when  divorced  from  an  un- 
reserved surrender  to  the  will  of  God,  inevitably 
tends  to  an  externalism  which  too  often  passes  into 
flagrant  hypocrisy.  Evil,  secretly  cherished  in  the 
soul,  turns  the  most  orthodox  and  immaculate 
customs  of  worship  into  a  hollow,  loathsome  insin- 
cerity. Formalism  is  the  ever  repeated,  yet  ever 
hopeless,  endeavour  of  human  nature  to  conciliate 
God,  whilst  the  soul  is  out  of  harmony  with  His 
ways.  This  relation  between  sin  and  a  futile  letter- 
worship  is  suggested  by  the  context  of  our  Lord's 
words,  when  He  denounced  the  hypocritical  scribes, 
as  well  as  by  that  of  St.  Paul's  prophetic  forecast 
in  his  letter  to  Timothy.  This  indictment  of  Jewish 
worship  for  its  unreality  is  preceded  by  a  terrible 
inventory  of  the  evils  issuing  from  the  hearts  of  those 
who  are  painstaking  in  their  outward  pieties.  "  For 
out  of  the  heart  cometh  forth  evil  thoughts,  murders, 


THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  309 


adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,"  in  spite,  too,  of  so 
much  concern  for  the  outside  of  cup  and  platter  and 
frequent  ritual  washing  of  the  hands.  In  looking  forth 
into  the  future  the  Apostle  Paul  saw  that  the  dismal 
evils  he  had  specified — greed,  contempt  of  parents, 
ingratitude,  love  of  pleasure,  violence — would  still 
leave  the  mere  husk  of  Christian  observance  intact 
and  undestroyed  ;  "holding  a  form  of  godliness  but 
having  denied  the  power  thereof"  Wherever  there 
is  an  attempt  to  harmonise  a  respect  for  religious 
ordinances  with  low  standards  of  conduct,  formalism 
becomes  rampant,  and  Christianity,  judged  by  the 
temper  of  its  professors,  is  in  imminent  danger  of 
passing  back  into  a  non-ethical  religion. 

It  is  one  of  the  puzzles  of  history  that  Christianity 
should  often  subdue  men  to  an  acknowledgment  of 
its  outward  claims,  whilst  they  rebel  against  its 
strenuous  ethic.  In  his  book  of  Travels,  Montaigne 
tells  us  that  in  the  city  of  Rome,  when  the  bells 
sounded  the  hour  for  the  worship  of  Mary,  painted 
women  in  their  chambers  of  wantonness,  would  rise 
from  beds  of  shame  and  drop  upon  their  knees. 
In  our  own  land,  famous  soldiers  and  statesmen, 
who  blasphemed  much  during  the  week,  have  pre- 
sented themselves  on  Sunday  morning  in  the 
village  church  at  the  sacramental  table.  We  still 
hear  of  men  in  some  of  our  rural  districts  who  are 
the  last  to  leave  the  ale-house  on  the  Saturday 
night,  and  are  at  early  communion  next  morning. 
Patrons  of  the  Turf,  with  its  debaucheries  and 
sordid  dissipations,  are  often  the  most  zealous  of 
churchmen,  and  Bridge,  alas !  is  not  unknown  in 
homes  once  ruled  by  the  Puritan  tradition.  It  is 
easy  to  conform  to  the  letter,  and  also  expedient. 


3IO  THE    RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST 

Religious    form     may    sometimes    represent    the 
external    skeleton,   which    at   one   time    guarded    a 
life  now  passed  away.     How  often   is  it  the  monu- 
ment of  an  unconfessed   apostacy !     Little  by  little 
he  first   surrender   to    God    has    been   revoked   and 
the   spiritual   consciousness,    which   once   expressed 
itself  in  outward   acts  of  devotion,   has    faded   into 
oblivion,  whilst  the  perfunctory  acts  were  continued 
in  spite  of  their  sterility.     The  surviving  habits  and 
customs  speak  of  days  of  spiritual   prosperity,  now 
succeeded   by  days  of  decadence.     The  conformity 
to   religious   traditions,   out   of  which    all    spiritual 
vitality     has     disappeared,    is    like     those     curious 
desiccated    forests   to   be    found  jn    some    parts    of 
Turkestan.     Trees  once  rose  into  the  air,  tall,  well- 
proportioned,  strongly  anchored  in  the  soil,  but  they 
are  now  sapless,  denuded  of  foliage,  bereft  of  fruit, 
and    no    longer   capable    of    producing   it.      Sand- 
storms    have     turned     woods    and     orchards     into 
clumps    of    fossil-trees.      The    trees   have    lost    all 
power  of  drinking  in   the  dew,  absorbing  sunshine, 
ministering   of  their   sweetness   and  bounty  to  the 
world.      The  rare  essence  of  life  evaporated  genera- 
tions ago,  and  yet  the  old  shapes  it   assumed    still 
dominate    the    landscape.     And    Churches    with    a 
history   reaching   back  to  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
holding  in  trust  priceless  fragments  of  early  Christian 
literature,     reciting     ancient    liturgies     and     creeds, 
punctilious  in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments, 
may  lack  growth  in  grace,  enthusiastic  enterprise,  and 
all  the  fruits  of  holiness.       In    the   lands   of  sacred 
story,  fossil  Edens,  as   well   as  incinerated  cities   of 
lust,  survive  in    grim   and  doleful  irony.      And  the 
same    features     of    degeneracy   may   sometimes   be 


THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST  311 


seen  in  the  individual  as  well  as  in  the  religious 
societies  founded  by  the  toils  and  tears  of 
apostles.  The  Bible  is  still  read  and  the  knee  bent 
in  wonted  habits  of  prayer.  The  good  custom  of 
coming  to  God's  house  is  unbroken.  The  sacrament 
is  duly  received.  And  yet  the  dew  is  gone  from  the 
soul  and  the  vitality  of  faith  is  lost.  Perfect  ortho- 
doxy and  lamentable  petrifaction  of  soul  meet  in 
weird  association. 

When  the  mortuary  chapel  of  the  Medicis  in 
Florence  was  disturbed  some  years  ago,  the  sus- 
picion, bruited  abroad  centuries  before,  that  one  of 
the  princesses  of  that  famous  line  had  been  poisoned 
by  her  husband,  Francis  the  First  of  Austria, 
was  confirmed.  It  was  found  that  not  a  single 
trace  of  decay  had  passed  upon  the  form  of  the 
princess.  She  lay  in  a  dress  of  red  satin  trimmed 
with  lace,  red  silk  stockings  on  her  feet,  and  jewelled 
earrings  peeping  through  the  blond  tresses  of  her 
hair.  The  brow  was  white  and  firm  as  marble,  the 
colour  had  not  quite  left  the  cheeks  ;  and  although 
more  than  three  hundred  years  had  lapsed,  no  sign  of 
disfigurement  and  dissolution  had  appeared.  Arsenic, 
whilst  swiftly  and  completely  destroying  life,  at  the 
same  time  safeguards  the  flesh  against  corruption. 
And  mortal  sin  often  acts  in  much  the  same  way. 
It  leaves  the  outward  form  of  piety  undestroyed, 
whilst  it  paralyses  all  the  religious  capacities  and 
cuts  the  soul  off  from  God.  Beauty  may  linger  in 
all  the  rites  of  worship  when  a  stupendous  spiritual 
tragedy  has  come  to  pass. 

Nothing  short  of  sincere  spiritual  service  will  meet 
the  claim  of  a  just  and  holy  God.  Men,  necessarily 
unable  to  carry  their  demands  into  the  spheres  of  the 


312  THE   RELIGIOUS   FORMALIST 

soul,  are  satisfied  when  outward  conformity  to  the 
visible  standards  set  up  is  secured.  Politicians  who 
patronise  Christianity,  without  believing  in  it,  and  are 
zealous  for  State  Churches,  wish  to  use  religion  as 
one  of  the  expedients  of  Government.  Christianity, 
said  a  newspaper  editor  in  private  conversation,  is  a 
good  national  religion  but  has  little  or  no  virtue  for 
its  individual  adherents.  All  he  expected  or  desired 
was  patriotic  conformity  to  a  few  outward  rites, 
combined  with  a  blind  devotion  to  the  flag.  He  who 
searches  the  heart  and  tries  the  reins  of  the  children 
of  men,  and  is  ever  walking  in  the  midst  of  the  golden 
candlesticks,  asks  much  more  than  that.  It  is 
reported  that  at  the  Coronation  Durbar,  an  Indian 
Rajah,  who  had  a  somewhat  sullen  countenance  and 
was  not  supposed  to  be  over  well  affected  towards  the 
British  Crown,  appeared  in  the  great  bejewelled 
procession,  with  a  face  painted  for  the  occasion  by  a 
native  artist  into  an  unalterable  smirk.  Such  a  show 
of  loyalty  might  satisfy  a  Viceroy,  and  also  amuse  a 
good-natured  king,  if  he  happened  to  hear  of  it,  but 
would  not  count  in  a  crisis.  One  wonders  how  the 
census  of  worshippers  would  work  out  if  the  specious 
formalists  were  omitted  from  the  reckoning.  God 
does  not  count  the  complaisance  towards  His  authority 
and  the  smiling  obsequiousness  to  His  claim  which 
is  skin-deep  only,  or  not  so  much  as  that.  He  scorns 
all  painted  loyalties.  Our  homage  must  be  intense 
and  inward. 

To  poor,  fallen  men  and  women  with  a  weakened 
and  perverted  sense  of  spiritual  things,  the  outward 
observance  is  a  thousand-fold  easier  than  dutiful 
tempers  and  habits  of  mind.  Childhood  may  be 
trained  into  gestures  that  will  be  as  ineradicable  as 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FORMALIST  313 


the  measured  tread  of  the  soldier  twenty  years  after 
he  has  left  the  forces  ;  but  such  feats  fall  short  of 
religion.  To  teach  the  index  finger  to  shape  the 
outline  of  a  cross,  to  enjoin  the  folding  of  the  hands 
and  the  closing  of  the  eyes,  to  practise  well-timed 
and  graceful  genuflexions,  is  easier  than  to  light 
within  the  soul  the  flame  of  a  pure  devotion.  The 
asceticism  of  the  man  who  stands  on  one  leg  for 
twenty  years,  with  arm  stretched  out  above  his  head, 
is  easier  than  the  publican's  frame  of  mind  when  he 
stole  abashed  into  the  temple.  To  walk  in  spiked 
shoes  to  a  shrine  a  thousand  miles  away,  or  to 
measure  the  distance  with  bodily  prostrations,  is 
child's  play  compared  with  the  journey  of  the 
prodigal  from  the  far-off  country  to  his  father's 
threshold.  To  wriggle  one's  way  up  to  some  high- 
perched  Himalayan  shrine  on  hands  and  knees  re- 
quires less  fortitude  than  to  come  through  the  rent 
veil  into  the  holy  place.  It  is  so  easy  to  rest  in  that 
which  is  outward,  because  Nature  prompts  the  method 
and  apparently  approves  the  feat.  We  are  formalists 
by  birth,  and  God's  miracle  is  needed  to  lift  us  above 
the  temptation  to  letter-worship  and  make  us  spiritual. 
The  breath  of  God  must  create  us  anew  and  revive  us 
hour  by  hour  from  the  earthly  slumber  to  which  we 
are  prone.  It  is  only  regenerated  children  who  can 
worship  God  in  the  spirit,  trust  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh,  so  making  good  their 
claim  to  be  of  the  elect  Israel. 


XVI 

THE   COMMON   DISCIPLESHIP 

"  But  be  not  ye  called  Rabbi  ;  for  one  is  your  teacher  and 
all  ye  are  brethren.  And  call  no  man  father  on  the  earth  ;  for 
one  is  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Neither  be  ye  called 
Master  ;  for  one  is  your  Master,  even  the  Christ." — Matt. 
xxiii.  8-IO. 

Jesus  here  warns  His  disciples  against  those  caste 
distinctions  which  had  embittered  the  religion  of  His 
times,  destroyed  that  sense  of  brotherhood  on  which 
the  Mosaic  law  was  based,  and  was  helping  to  bring 
a  swift  Nemesis  upon  the  faithless  nation.  Such 
distinctions  must  not  be  allowed  to  grow  up  in  the 
new  society  He  was  founding.  Rank  and  the  flatter- 
ing titles  conceding  homage  to  it,  would  blight  the 
movement  which  was  to  find  its  centre  in  His  own 
person. 

Our  Lord  here  implies  that  He  has  a  right  to  teach 
truth  shared  by  no  other ;  that  the  Divine  Father- 
hood permits  no  competitive  claim  upon  man's 
gratitude  and  obedience  ;  and  that  the  Christ  Himself 
has  undivided  authority  to  direct  the  gifts,  allot  the 
work,  and  shape  the  vocation  of  His  followers. 

His  words  imply  no  censure  upon  the  use  of  civil 

314 


THE   COMMON   DISCIPLESHIP  3^5 


titles  and  the  powers  they  define.  Jesus  and  His 
apostles  conformed  to  the  courtesies  of  official  life  in 
their  methods  of  address,  although  He  spoke  lightly 
of  the  princes  of  this  world  and  denounced  the 
idolatries  begotten  by  their  pomps.  He  did  not 
raise  His  protest  against  schools  of  learning  or 
challenge  their  qualifications  to  appraise  and  certify 
knowledge.  Such  subjects  were  beyond  His 
immediate  survey,  and  might  be  left  to  settle 
themselves.  But  neither  the  titles  used  in  the  world 
nor  the  prerogatives  corresponding  to  them  were  to 
be  reproduced  amongst  His  followers.  The  new 
faith,  into  which  He  was  expanding  the  old,  did  not 
rest  upon  technical  knowledge  or  the  witness  of 
experts ;  orders  and  hierarchies,  corresponding  to 
those  of  this  world,  were  therefore  superfluous.  The 
atmosphere  of  the  discipleship  must  be  frank  and 
simple  as  that  of  the  home.  Perhaps  the  potentates 
of  this  world  are  at  their  best  and  gain  most  in  the 
quiet  retreats,  where  titles  and  court  ceremonies  are 
dropped,  and  the  root-affections  of  the  nature  can 
express  themselves  without  formality  or  reserve. 
Where  Jesus  dwells  and  makes  known  His  deepest 
secret  there  must  be  no  vain  show  or  pretence  of 
greatness. 

In  view  of  this  memorable  protest,  is  it  not  strange 
that  the  chief  ministers  of  the  Roman  and  the  Greek 
communions  should  have  assumed  such  titles  as 
"  Pope  "  and  "  Patriarch,"  and  have  claimed  that  the 
majestic  prerogatives  of  a  Divine  Fatherhood  are 
embodied  in  their  formal  acts  ?  Such  names  go 
against  both  the  spirit  and  letter  of  this  deprecation 
addressed  to  the  Twelve.  The  Tsar  at  St.  Petersbursf 
also  calls  himself  "  the  little  father  of  his  people"  and 


3i6  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

the  Chinese  Emperor  is  described  as  "  the  father  and 
mother  "  of  four  hundred  million  souls  ;  but  the  acts 
of  these  rulers  no  more  reflect  the  wisdom  and  power 
of  the  Most  High  than  do  the  acts  of  some  Popes 
and  Patriarchs.  Sweet  and  pleasing  designations 
may  sometimes   mask   ferocious   despotisms. 

All  disciples  have  a  common  standing-ground  in 
Christ's  school,  and    spiritual    privilege  and    oppor- 
tunity are   equal.      Jesus    does    not   imply   that   no 
after-distinctions  will  arise,  but  rather  the  contrary. 
The  highest  honour  belongs  to  the  man  who  is  free 
from  ambition,  and,  renouncing  loud-sounding  names 
and  glittering  decorations,  covets  the  humblest  tasks. 
The  genius  of  His  kingdom  is  incompatible  with  the 
growth  of  governing  aristocracies,  shaped  after  the 
course  of  this  world.     It  is   sometimes  argued  that 
social  castes  may  quite  legitimately  reproduce  them- 
selves  within   the    Church,    and    that    it   is    indeed 
expedient  for  a  selected  group  of  its  clergy  to   be 
invested  with  the  rank  of  princes,  so  that  they  can 
speak  on  equal  terms  to  the  great  ones  of  the  earth. 
Kings,  and  nobles  who  trace  their  titles  back  to  the 
Norman  Conquest,  do  not  care  to  be  preached  to  by 
peasants   and   fishermen.      A   good  and  wise   man, 
like  the  late   Bishop  Ewing,  may  sometimes  make 
himself  an  apologist  for  a  condition  of  things  never 
contemplated  by  Jesus.     In  one  of  his  ''  Present-Day 
Papers  "  on  the  "  Christian  Ministry,"  he  has  said: — 

"  In  Rome  and  Constantinople  we  find  the  Church 
with  an  Imperial  system  ;  in  Switzerland  with  a 
Republican ;  in  England  with  a  constitutional  or 
limited  episcopacy  ;  and  in  America,  where  many 
nations  are  in  embryo  with  representations  of  all 
methods   of  Government  together.     Moreover,  it  is 


thp:  common  discipleship  317 

evident  among  ourselves  that  the  subdivisions  and 
denominations  of  Churches  and  the  outward  dis- 
tinctions which  prevail  in  matters  of  religion  are 
more  owing  to  social  or  worldly  causes  than  to 
spiritual  or  international  differences.  The  upper 
classes  affect  an  organisation  in  conformity  with 
their  own  habits  and  position  and  the  lower  with 
theirs  ;  and  the  outward  aspects  of  the  Churches 
affects  the  choice  of  individuals.  Marquises  and 
Countesses  do  not  gravitate  to  dissent,  but  rise  to 
the  Imperialism  of  Rome ;  Dissenters  do  not  leap 
per  saltuni  to  the  Papacy,  but  ascend  the  constitu- 
tional  steps  of  the  Church   of  England." 

The  facts,  perhaps,  are  correctly  stated,  but  Church 
attachment  is  looked  upon  as  though  it  were  a 
question  of  social  convenience,  and  the  meekness 
and  gentleness  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  His  many 
counsels  to  the  disciples,  seem  to  be  left,  for  the 
moment,  out  of  the  reckoning. 

In  the  early  centuries  different  types  of  Church 
organisation  appeared  in  different  provinces,  influenced 
more  or  less  by  the  precedents  and  traditions  of  the 
local  governments.  It  was  so  important  that  men 
should  accept  Jesus  Christ  and  be  loyal  to  the 
teaching  of  His  apostles,  that  much  freedom  was 
conceded,  and  the  methods  of  Church  administration 
were  treated  as  of  subordinate  importance.  But  it 
is  a  mistake  to  assume  that  highly  graded  oligarchies 
were  the  appointed  patterns,  to  which  Churches  were 
bound  to  conform,  when  the  missionary  conditions, 
in  which  they  were  cradled,  had  once  passed  away. 
Imperial  ideas  within  the  Church  always  engender 
pride ;  and  poor,  washed-out  mimicries  of  Csesar- 
worship,  however  attenuated,  are  against  that  equality 


3i8  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

of  privilege  which  is  one  of  the  root-principles  of 
the  gospel.  Rank,  and  the  social  cleavage  to  which 
it  tends,  is  the  product  of  a  temper  Jesus  Christ 
came  to  cure,  and  in  so  far  as  Christianity  has  failed, 
it  has  failed  because  it  has  been  subdued  to  the 
traditions  of  a  world  brimful  of  self-assertion  and 
heart-burning.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  intend  gulfs 
to  open  up  within  the  society  founded  in  His  own 
blood.  He  came  to  create  a  communion  clear  from 
the  watchwords  of  caste,  and  in  the  end  He  will 
do  it.  "  All  ye  are  brethren."  Ministerial  office  is 
no  exception  to  this  rule,  for  it  is  created  to  meet 
a  human  need,  and  defines  an  appointed  work  rather 
than  to  confer  spiritual  rank.  "  Esteem  them  for 
their  works'  sake."  The  Church  mocks  Jesus  Christ 
when  it  changes  itself  into  a  Bureau  of  trumpery 
heraldries. 

It  is  as  natural  for  men  of  the  world  to  sort 
themselves  out  into  ranks  and  castes,  as  for  denuded 
and  disintegrated  rocks  to  arrange  themselves  into 
clearly  defined  beds.  We  look  around  us  and  see 
castes  which  rest  on  wealth,  on  descent,  on  physical 
beauty,  on  skill  in  war  or  handicraft,  on  learning  and 
scholarship;  and  also  castes  which  are  religious  in 
their  basis.  And  these  last  are  perhaps  the  most 
pernicious  of  all.  An  angry,  unresting  protest 
murmurs  through  the  world  against  the  rigid  and 
exclusive  classes  into  which  society  crystallises  anew, 
after  every  fresh  upheaval  and  revolt.  Hard,  super- 
cilious inequalities  clash  with  the  world-wide  sense 
of  justice,  and  where  men  are  meek  and  obsequious, 
and  quietly  accept  things  as  they  are,  ^he  attitude 
assumed  perhaps  conceals  a  leaven  of  hypocrisy. 
In  the  realms  of  Art  and  Science,  Jurisprudence   and 


THE   COMMON   DISCIPLESHIP  319 

Religion,  authorities  to  direct  and  administer  are 
necessary,  but  ranks  and  castes  are  often  created  at 
the  bidding  of  human  pride  and  not  to  meet  urgent 
practical  needs ;  and  such  gratuitous  inequalities 
are  always  hurtful.  They  impair  the  influence  of 
those  who  complacently  parade  them,  and  stab  with 
pain  those  who  are  thus  reminded  of  the  inferior 
places  allotted  to  them  in  Church  life.  Till  the 
multitudes  acquire  the  art  of  self-rule,  some  one  in 
both  Church  and  State  must  hold  the  helm  ;  but 
office  brings  temptations,  and  there  are  few  men 
who  do  not  deteriorate  in  the  relaxing  atmosphere 
of  publicity  and  adulation.  The  official  conscience 
is  one  of  the  most  painful  and  perplexing  riddles 
presented  to  our  judgment  and  our  charity.  If 
Simon  Peter  had  really  possessed  the  powers  assigned 
to  him  by  a  later  age,  he  might  perhaps  have  even 
strengthened  his  statement  that  the  righteous  are 
scarcely  saved.  A  desire  for  authority,  and  for  the 
stately  titles  corresponding  to  it,  is  latent  in  most 
men,  and  certain  ecclesiastical  doctrines  feed  and 
pamper  it.  Men  sometimes  speak  of  "  pastoral  rights  " 
in  a  strain  which  mocks  the  instinct  for  fraternity 
in  the  soul  of  every  right-minded  man.  Those  who 
have  schemed  for  place  and  power  in  ecclesiastical 
assemblies  are  as  sensitive  to  the  offence  of  lese- 
inajeste  as  the  Kaiser,  and  think  it  graver  than  a 
moral  trespass.  From  Christ's  standpoint  such  an 
offence  is  impossible.  Positions  of  responsibility 
ought  to  be  filled  in  a  temper  which  "  vaunteth  not 
itself  and  is  not  puffed  up";  but  alas!  the  boaster 
is  often  found  in  the  seat  of  authority  whose  motto 
is  "  I  am  holier  than  thou,"  by  the  right  of  office 
at   least,  if  not  in   private   character.     It   would  be 


320  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

instructive  to  hear  Jesus  Christ  pass  judgment  upon 
such  pretence. 

There  are  two  ways  of  getting  rid  of  these  artificial 
distinctions  in  Church  and  State,  which  exasperate 
the  best  of  men. 

The  reformer,  who  is  of  this  world  and  toys  fondly 
with  its  weapons,  says,  Let  this  proud  flesh  be  cut 
out  of  our  national  life,  by  a  sharp-edged  sword  if 
needs  be.  Our  inane  disparities  are  a  stigma  upon 
the  life  of  any  self-respecting  commonwealth.  Meet 
with  force  the  man  who  thinks  that  by  fair  means 
or  foul  he  ought  to  be  at  the  top.  Level  what  is 
meretricious  and  lay  it  in  the  dust.  Scoff  at  the 
trappings  in  which  the  pride  of  office  often  disports 
itself  if  stronger  measures  are  impossible. 

But  when  this  is  done  men  still  cling  with  frenzied 
tenacity  to  the  privileges  of  the  past  and  prize 
ancient  prestige  more  highly  in  retrospect  than 
in  actual  possession ;  whilst  new  broods  of  pre- 
tenders march  to  the  front,  the  doughty  champions 
of  common  rights,  who  prove  at  length  unwelcome 
as  the  old-school  autocrats.  Every  revolution,  into 
which  the  element  of  violence  enters,  tends  to  overdo 
itself,  and  to  perpetuate  these  vainglorious  inequalities 
which  offend  and  affront  us  all. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  dealing  with  this, 
as  with  other  vexing  problems,  the  great  Teacher 
adopted  moral  methods.  He  had  as  little  liking 
for  artificial  distinctions  as  the  fiery  demagogue, 
but  He  sought  to  eliminate  them  from  both  social 
life  and  religion  by  putting  before  His  followers 
distinctions  of  absorbing  interest  and  surpassing 
magnitude.  In  this  way  He  designed  to  found  a 
spiritual  commonwealth,  free  from  caste  as  the  best- 


THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  321 

ordered  family.  Let  the  soul  bow  to  an  authority 
which  defies  rivalry,  and  the  chilling  barriers  built 
up  between  man  and  man  will  swiftly  dissolve.  He 
who  proposed  to  quarry  and  blast  away  the  glaciers 
and  ice-walls  hemming  in  the  Arctic  zone,  would 
make  himself  a  laughing-stock,  however  many  the 
millions  of  gold  at  his  command.  Chisels  and 
hammers,  dynamite  and  gunpowder  cartridges  are 
useful  in  dealing  with  slate  and  granite  in  little  local 
quarries,  but  grim  Nature  in  her  Northern  heights 
would  smile  contemptuously  on  hosts  of  miners 
furnished  with  such  tools.  Let  the  summer  sun 
break  forth,  and  the  work  is  done.  When  the  new 
spirit  created  by  Jesus  seizes  and  melts  the  souls 
of  men,  the  rights  and  titles,  which  pride  tempts 
them  to  assume  and  assert,  are  renounced,  and 
separating  barriers  dissolve  like  wax.  A  seeker  after 
truth  looking  stedfastly  to  the  treasures  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge  hidden  in  Jesus  Christ,  uplifted  by 
thoughts  of  the  strength  and  tenderness  of  the 
Divine  Fatherhood,  bowing  before  the  Cross  through 
which  Jesus  vindicates  His  sovereignty  over  a 
ransomed  race,  does  not  wish  to  be  called  "  Rabbi," 
"  Master,"  or  "  Father "  ;  nor  is  He  tempted  to  pay 
homage  to  fellow-mortals  who  claim  such  names. 
All  pomps  and  dominions  shrivel  before  the  face  of 
the  Eternal  who  dwells  with  us,  and  earthly  lore 
loses  its  significance  in  the  presence  of  the  Rabbi 
of  Galilee,  who  alone  makes  the  Father  known 
to  us. 

If  religion  as  conceived  by  Jesus  did  not  need 
a  school  of  Rabbis,  with  lines  of  successors  in  the 
coming  generations,  but  centred  in  His  own  immortal 
presence,  it  is  clear  that  it  does  not  rest  upon  the 

22 


322  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 


technicalities  of  the  letter  and  those  fine-drawn 
disputations  in  which  the  Rabbis  took  pride. 
Christianity  is  not  an  occult  doctrine  put  into  trust 
with  experts,  but  is  broad,  simple,  and  catholic,  con- 
sisting of  principles  which  awaken  a  chord  within 
every  human  breast.  No  man  need  be  indebted 
for  grace  and  truth  to  another  than  the  Mediator 
Himself.  In  the  future  Church  gifts  were  destined 
to  appear,  and  the  recipients  of  those  gifts  would 
be  acknowledged  and  welcomed  by  their  brethren  ; 
but  of  continuous  and  irreversible  orders,  shaped  to 
one  pattern  and  accredited  by  historical  methods  into 
which  accidents  might  enter,  the  Master  did  not  for  a 
moment  think. 

This  tendency  of  the  disciple  to  separate  himself 
from  the  crowd,  and  to  set  up  as  a  religious  suzerain 
a  tendency  endemic  in  all  periods,  works  a  double 
injury.  It  unfits  the  man  who  seeks  to  be  chief 
from  receiving  the  Divine  word  ;  whilst  at  the  same 
time  it  diverts  the  reverence  of  those  who  should 
profit  by  his  teaching  from  its  one  true  object.  The 
way  in  which  some  men  scheme  for  prestige,  and 
become  more  frozen  in  sympathy  and  impoverished 
in  spiritual  life  with  every  fresh  pinnacle  of  distinc- 
tion they  reach,  is  sad  indeed.  They  are  stripped 
by  their  overweening  ambitions  of  the  gifts  made 
ready  for  them,  and  realise  Solomon's  description 
of  the  beggars  who  ride  upon  horses.  It  gratifies 
them  hugely  to  be  encircled  by  devotees,  and 
perhaps  they  seldom  think  of  the  injury  thus  done 
both  to  themselves  and  others.  They  are  no 
longer  channels  through  which  Divine  influence 
freely  flows,  and  the  people  from  whom  pious 
homage   is   exacted   are   seduced   into   an  insidious 


THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  323 


idolatry,    practised    under    the    form    of    honouring 
God    in    the    person    of   His    representative   servant. 
It  is  as  much  an  idolatry  to  put  up  a  piece  of  living 
human  flesh  for  God  as  to  make  Him  in  the  fashion 
of  gold  or  silver.     This  disguised  heathenism  within 
the  Church  hinders  that  receptive  temper  demanded 
by  the  gospel  when  it  comes  to  work  its  chief  good 
in  us.     Many  races,  nominally  Christian,  have  almost 
lost   the  capacity  for   seeing   the    invisible,    because 
the  gaze  has  been  fixed  so  intently   upon  a  visible 
church,  with  its  pomps   and  shows  and  processions 
of  dignitaries,   organised   in    the    name   of  religion. 
The  eye  has  lost   the   art   of   focussing   itself  upon 
the   things    beyond.      The   student   cannot   get   the 
right   impression    of   a    masterpiece    in    Dresden    or 
Venice  by  looking  at  a  copy,  nor  even  at  a  photo- 
graphic   reproduction ;    and    the   soul    does    not  get 
the   right   impression   of  God    by   being   told    some 
ecclesiastic    is    His    representative    upon    earth,    for 
the  ecclesiastic  is    not   always   a   decent   copy.     To 
obtrude   the    religious   guide   and    director,    to   give 
him   a  great   name   and   put  him  high  in  the  scale 
of  dignitaries,  is   to   substitute   the    fallible    for   the 
unerring   and    the   perfect  ;    and    we   are   no   better 
off  if  we  are  told  that  God's  viceijerent  on  earth  is 
infallible  only  when  he  speaks  in  his  official  capacity, 
for   the   line  between  the  official  and   the  unofficial 
is  hard  to  draw.     The  faculty  of  reverence  is  mocked, 
impaired,  deadened  when   these  earthly  counterfeits 
are  presented  to  it  under  a  Divine  name  and  stamped 
with  the  superscription   of  Jesus   Christ.     God   can 
neither  put  into  us  all  He  desires,  nor  get  back  from 
us   in   service   all  that  of  which  we  are  capable,  if 
we  prostrate  ourselves  before  earthly  oracles.     The 


324  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

discredit  done  to  religion  by  asking  homage  for 
even  its  best  representatives  is  tragic.  The  coming 
Christianity  needed  its  precept  against  idolatry  no 
less  than  Judaism,  for  its  tendency  was  to  exalt  the 
human. 

But  something  nobler  is  offered  for  our  faith  and 
grateful  homage  than  the  divisive  and  irritating 
lordship  of  the  disciples  over  each  other.  These 
admonitory  counsels  rest  upon  a  spiritual  fact  of 
surpassing  importance,  the  perpetual  presence  which 
makes  pompous  differentiations  of  authority  within 
the  brotherhood  needless, — "  One  is  your  Teacher," 
"  One  is  your  Father,"  "  One.  is  your  Master,"  and 
"  all  ye  are  brethren."  The  authority  to  which 
disciples  must  submit  is  as  real  and  as  near  as  that 
of  the  aspirant  to  a  grand  viziership  who  flaunts  a 
title  to  the  right  or  the  left-hand  throne.  This  word 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  the  Twelve  was  pertinent,  not 
to  the  passing  moment  only,  but  looked  towards  a 
far-off  future,  in  which  the  conditions  would  be 
greatly  changed.  The  violent  death  which  was  to 
separate  the  Master  in  bodily  presence  from  His 
disciples  was  close  at  hand.  And  yet  in  days 
and  months  and  years  following  the  great  bereave- 
ment, when  the  eye  could  no  longer  discern  the 
outward  form  of  that  mystic  personality  through 
which  God  had  been  realised,  He  was  to  be  their 
Counsellor  and  Supreme  Guide,  as  completely  as 
in  the  months,  so  full  of  interest,  since  He  had 
called  them  from  their  homes  and  their  lake-side 
tasks.  This  and  all  that  it  would  hereafter  mean 
they  could  only  grasp  by  letting  vapid  distinctions 
dissolve  out  of  the  society  into  which  they  were 
bound,   and    all   the   high-sounding   titles   for  which 


THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  325 

they  were  secretly  clamouring  die  into  silence.  A 
genuine  spiritual  fellowship  with  Jesus  was  to 
be  continued  under  greatly  altered  circumstances, 
whereby  they  would  be  able  to  know  His  mind 
and  receive  His  interpretations  of  the  gospel  of 
God.  The  presence  of  the  Son  in  their  midst, 
spiritually  discerned,  would  attest  and  ensure  the 
living  presence  of  the  Father,  so  that  their  suppli- 
cating cry  should  not  fail  to  reach  His  ear.  These 
words  cover  both  the  near  and  the  remote  future. 
Behind  this  triple  precept  there  is  a  silent,  inviolable 
pledge  of  an  effectual  presence,  abiding  within  the 
Church,  the  sense  of  which  ought  so  to  absorb  the 
disciples  that  they  will  be  in  no  mood  for  paying  court 
to  each  other  and  receiving  honour  of  men.  If  no 
such  pledge  had  been  implied,  Jesus  would  have 
been  bidding  His  disciples  strain  their  eyes  towards 
an  unheeding  Deity  and  an  absent  Lord.  But  the 
Heavenly  Father  is  as  near  as  the  earthly,  and 
needs  no  visible  official  delegated  to  represent  Him. 
Notwithstanding  the  cross,  the  tomb  and  the 
Ascension  from  Olivet,  the  Rabbi  of  Galilee  will 
be  as  truly  present  to  those  gathered  in  His  name 
as  Hillel,  or  Gamaliel  to  the  learners  in  their  schools. 
God  the  Father  touches  men  as  closely  as  any  human 
benefactor,  and  the  Rabbi  of  Galilee  is  not  going 
away  to  open  the  doors  of  His  school  in  some  distant 
world.  He  will  still  be  here  and  the  door  will  be 
always  open. 

"  One  is  your  Teacher  "  and  "  One  is  your  Father, 
which  is  in  heaven."  Such  reasons,  used  to  dissuade 
from  self-exaltation,  would  be  unmeaning,  unless  the 
words  implied  the  continued  presence  of  God  through 
His  Son  in  the  after-fellowship  of  the  disciples.    A  wise 


326  THE   COMMON   DISCIPLESHIP 


friend  does  not  ask  us  to  confide  in  some  counsellor 
who  is  on  the  point  of  death  or  who  may  chance 
to  be  on  the  other  side  of  the  world.  We  should 
suspect  the  sanity  of  the  man  who  recommended  a 
physician  just  embarking  for  equatorial  Africa  to 
study  the  causes  of  sleeping  sickness  ;  or  who  bade 
us  settle  some  point  in  navigation  by  waiting  for  the 
return  of  a  member  of  Sir  John  Franklin's  expedition 
to  discover  the  North- West  passage  ;  or  who  urged 
a  Government  to  plan  the  strategy  of  a  new  war 
under  the  guidance  of  one  of  Napoleon's  generals 
frozen  to  death  at  the  retreat  from  Moscow.  When 
one  kind  of  help  is  pressed  upon  us,  and  our  pre- 
ference for  the  inferior  help  to  which  we  may  be 
inclined  is  discouraged,  it  is  implied  that  the  more 
efficient  help  is  accessible.  An  accomplished  surgeon 
in  Berlin  is  of  no  use  to  the  man  who  has  just  been 
run  over  in  the  streets  of  London,  and  the  busybody 
who  stepped  up  and  gave  the  address  would  be  looked 
upon  as  a  madman.  The  best  succour  for  us  in  an 
emergency  is  that  which  is  nearest.  Jesus  Christ  is 
not  only  wiser  than  all  other  teachers,  but  He  is 
within  call ;  and  God  Almighty  is  not  only  better 
than  all  other  fathers,  but  He  is  nearer  than  the 
nearest.  Unless  the  Teacher,  the  Father,  the  Master 
commended  by  Jesus  Christ  to  His  disciples,  is  in 
close  and  direct  contact  with  human  need,  the  praise 
of  these  august  and  benign  authorities  is  wide  of  the 
mark,  and  their  counsel,  defence,  and  priceless  gifts 
cannot  reach  us.  When  Jesus,  after  having  repre- 
hended the  vainglorious  assumptions  to  which  His 
disciples  were  prone,  says  "  One  is  your  Teacher," 
He  vouches  that  lessons  of  saving  wisdom  will  be 
brought  home  to  us ;  and  when  He  says,  call  "  God 


THE  COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  327 

your  Father,"  and  be  slow  either  to  receive  or  accept 
such  titles  of  honour  from  men,  He  means  that  we 
may  always  hide  ourselves  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty,  and  find  ourselves  cherished  in  the  em- 
brace of  His  all-forgiving  love.  The  view  here  set 
forth  by  Jesus  Christ  knows  only  of  one  God  and  of 
one  Mediator,  who  in  the  things  which  make  for 
salvation  deal  directly  with  human  souls.  In  those 
far-off  days  He  thought  no  men  too  dark  for  His 
personal  instruction,  or  too  guilty  for  His  absolving 
grace  ;  and  the  Lord  and  His  redeeming  methods 
are  the  same  to-day.  Whatever  else  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Christian  ministry  was  intended  to  do, 
it  was  not  designed  to  obscure  God  by  official 
pretence,  or  put  mto  the  mind  of  the  penitent  a 
mistrust  of  his  own  capacity  to  realise  the  presence 
which  purifies  from  sin. 

When  Jesus  Christ  chose  twelve  apostles,  and  in 
later  days  created  evangelists,  pastors,  and  teachers 
by  His  Mediatorial  gifts,  whilst  they  were  sent  to  set 
forth  His  mind  to  those  who  knew  Him  not,  or  knew 
Him  only  in  part,  He  did  not  intend  them  to  be 
plenipotentiaries.  If  I  sign  a  document  giving  power 
to  some  friend  to  act  as  my  proxy  it  implies  that 
I  shall  either  be  absent  from  the  country  or  unable 
to  watch  in  person  my  own  business  interests.  If 
our  Lord  had  made  priests  His  proxies,  and  reserved 
exclusive  teaching  rights  to  a  close  corporation,  and 
put  His  reconciling  grace  into  commission  with  the 
clergy,  this  would  have  implied  that  He  was  intend- 
ing to  withdraw  Himself  from  the  world,  or  to  break 
off  direct  converse  with  the  disciples,  through  many 
dark  and  chequered  days.  But  He  had  no  such  idea 
in  His  mind.     He  looked  forward  to  a  future  of  con- 


328  THE   COMMON   DISCIPLESHIP 

tinuous  intercourse  with  His  people.  When  we  give 
to  some  imaginary  representative  upon  earth  that 
implicit  trust  and  devoted  homage,  which  belong 
to  the  Saviour  alone,  it  implies  that  we  know 
Christ  only  after  the  flesh.  We  distrust  the  spiritual 
verity  which  is  always  touching  us.  Do  God,  and 
the  Son  through  whom  He  is  known,  seem  far  off? 
He  will  take  our  problem  into  His  own  hands  and 
solve  it.  The  Rabbi  of  the  moral  derelicts  of  the 
Jewish  race  long  centuries  ago  is  at  hand  to  teach 
us,  and  wherever  He  teaches  He  brings  a  new  sense 
of  God.  We  are  not  put  into  the  school  of  Simon 
Peter,  of  John,  of  Paul,  and  their  successors  in  the 
last  times.  Good  physician  that  He  is.  He  takes 
upon  Himself  the  burden  and  the  responsibility  of 
the  worst  cases.  He  is  not  going  about  doing  good 
in  distant  spheres  and  leaving  His  work  here  to 
temporary  assistants  and  substitutes.  The  school 
of  this  Rabbi  is  not  set  up  now  in  a  distant  star.  If 
Jesus  and  the  Holy  Father  He  reveals  are  to  be 
preferred  to  human  authorities  it  is  simply  because 
they  are  near  to  us.  He  who  can  shape  our  life 
aright  and  make  it  fruitful  with  eternal  blessing  is 
at  hand,  and  the  great  door  through  which  we  may 
reach  Him  is  open. 

High-sounding  titles  in  the  Church,  and  the  vain 
tempers  they  foster,  tend  to  create  spurious  centres  of 
authority  and  make  the  chief  servants  of  the  king- 
dom, not  stewards  of  common  gifts,  but  headsprings 
of  spiritual  grace.  When  artificial  pride  creeps  into 
any  section  of  the  discipleship,  that  truth  of  a  free 
Divine  favour,  on  which  Jesus  founded  His  society, 
is  compromised  and  obscured.  The  assumption  of 
superior  status,  other  than  that  which  is  vindicated 


THE   COMMON    DISCIFLESHIP  329 


by  its  own  sterlintr  and  unostentatious  qualities, 
ofTfends  us  and  offends  God  much  more  gravely, 
because  it  is  against  the  superb  breadth  of  His  re- 
demptive work.  The  living  waters  flow  down  every 
hillside  and  run  through  all  the  valleys,  but  he  who 
flaunts  a  priestly  prerogative  before  the  world  seeks 
to  divert  the  waters  from  their  free  channels  into  a 
parochial  well,  under  lock  and  key.  "  Who  is  Paul 
and  who  Apollos,  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed, 
even  as  God  dealt  to  every  man  ?  "  If  you  have  been 
raised  by  the  skill  of  a  famous  physician  from  the 
brink  of  the  grave  you  do  not  thank  the  boy  who 
brought  made-up  prescriptions  to  the  door,  although 
his  honest  punctual  service  deserves  praise,  but 
the  man  of  whom  he  has  been  the  messenger.  The 
name  of  the  boy  does  not  enter  into  your  thought. 
The  apostles  who  seem  to  be  pillars  are  only  God's 
instruments,  used  by  His  sovereign  choice  for  the 
accomplishment  of  His  saving  work.  Effectual  faith 
is  a  direct  gift  of  God  to  the  man  who  hears,  and 
human  ministries  have  simply  carried  the  message 
which  has  quickened  it.  The  teacher  must  lose  his 
visibility  and  the  Eternal  Giver  behind  him  must  be 
discerned.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  process  is  often 
reversed.  You  see  the  teacher,  especially  if  he  adver- 
tises, and  are  blind  to  God  whose  ambassador  he  is. 
You  may  make  a  gifted  preacher  fruitless  as  an  effete 
scribe,  by  paying  him  exaggerated  honour,  and  for- 
getting that  the  holiest  men  are  passive  when  God's 
gifts  flow  through  them  most  freely.  The  soul- 
conquering  force  of  Him  who  taught  as  having 
authority  sprang  from  the  fact  that  He  was  a  miracle 
of  lowliness,  and  therefore  a  perfect  instrument  of 
His  Father's  will.     If  the  message  of  the  gospel  has 


330  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

the  force  of  a  demonstration  none  can  gainsay, 
remember  that  the  breath  of  the  Galilean  Rabbi  is  in 
it,  whatever  accent  it  may  take  on  from  the  lips 
which  repeat  it.  Kings  in  primitive  conditions  of 
civilisation  require  their  attendants  to  strip  off  all 
gay  attire  in  the  royal  presence,  thus  reminding 
them  that  they  are  slaves  and  have  nothing  of 
their  own.  And  if  we  are  to  become  ministers 
of  God's  saving  will  we  must  lay  aside  our  blazon- 
ries and  our  patents  of  rank,  and  recognise  that 
we  have  nothing  which  we  have  not  received. 
Then  only  will  He  clothe  us  with  the  garments  of 
.  salvation. 

"  All  ye  are  brethren."  The  boastfulness  expressed 
in  titles  which  solicit  honour  rather  than  define  work 
is  against  the  freedom  and  the  impartial  catholicity 
of  faith.  It  is  a  sin  against  the  common  status 
of  the  believing  brotherhood,  and  may  embarrass 
those  shrinking  souls  who  ought  to  be  boldly 
claiming  their  spiritual  birthright.  He  who  asks, 
by  either  word  or  sign,  for  the  homage  of  comrades, 
suggests  that  he  has  outstripped  the  rest,  and  is 
entitled  to  pre-eminence.  In  various  stages  of 
growth  and  education,  we  are  yet  members  of  one 
family,  and  have  equal  rights.  Spiritual  wisdom 
comes  from  above,  and  its  possession,  unlike  that 
of  earthly  lore,  does  not  imply  accumulation  by 
meritorious  toil.  In  the  New  Testament  Church 
authority  to  teach  or  to  rule  is  not  indelibly  inherent 
in  either  the  persons  or  the  offices  of  those  who  may 
be  "  in  orders."  He  who  is  enriched  with  noble  gifts 
gains  the  pinnacle  of  distinction  because  he  is 
humbler  than  his  fellows,  and  thus  through  lowli- 
ness  gets  nearer   to    the    Lord  and    partakes    more 


THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  331 

richly  of  His  fulness.  When  a  man  attains  the  right 
to  rule  in  the  household  of  God  and  surpasses  others 
in  the  worth  of  His  service,  it  is  because  he  has  been 
so  free  from  self-vaunting  that  God  can  clothe  him 
with  authority,  knowing  that  he  will  use  it  meekly 
and  for  spiritual  ends.  No  one  challenges  influence 
of  spontaneous  growth,  the  influence  accruing  to 
that  man  who  acquires  power  by  suppressing  him- 
self. To  obtrude  power  is  to  forfeit  it.  To  take  to 
oneself  the  name  of  "  Rabbi  "  or  "  Master  "  is  spiritual 
suicide.  When  the  mind  of  Jesus  triumphs  there 
are  no  dividing  walls  in  the  midst  of  His  followers, 
no  priestly  castes,  no  inner  and  outer  circles  rigidly 
marked  off  from  each  other  by  Divine  edicts  and 
decrees.  There  is  the  same  freedom  of  access  to  all, 
the  same  open  doors,  the  same  inviting  highways  of 
advancement.  An  impartial  hand  reaches  out  to  all, 
if  not  the  same  gifts,  yet  gifts  which  may  ultimately 
prove  to  have  equal  spiritual  value.  For  every  man 
who  comes  into  the  kingdom  there  is  a  common 
vantage-ground.  All  are  brethren,  and  the  primo- 
geniture belongs  to  Jesus  alone.  We  share  one 
Father's  bounty.  His  presence  fills  the  Church,  and 
there  is  no  need  that  the  sceptre  should  be  put  into 
another's  hands.  The  foundations  of  the  kingdom 
are  so  laid  that  the  highest  is  he  who  steps  into  the 
meanest  place  without  a  murmur,  and  the  weak  and 
the  foolish  are  the  coming  princes.  When  it  is 
otherwise  the  keynote  of  the  gospel  has  been 
forgotten. 

Must  we  not  allow  something  for  rhetorical  em- 
phasis, or  perhaps  even  for  Eastern  hyperbole,  in  this 
saying?  If  the  letter  of  it  is  carried  out  to  its  logical 
issue,  surely  it  must  preclude  gradations  of  office  in 


332  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

the  future  Church,  and  invaHdate  the  manifold  minis- 
tries called  forth  by  the  outpoured  Spirit.  Did  not 
some  of  the  apostles,  who  listened  to  these  words, 
afterwards  sanction  arrangements  which  seemed  to 
run  counter  to  them  ?  Had  the  saying  passed  out  of 
mind  ?  Is  there  no  distinction  of  work  and  office  in 
the  life  of  the  angels  ?  Does  not  the  Bible  speak  of 
thrones,  dominions,  principalities,  and  powers  ?  Are 
we  not  told  that  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  one 
star  will  differ  from  another  star  in  glory,  and  does 
not  the  difference  often  begin  here  ?  Of  course  all 
gifts  must  be  welcomed  and  encouraged.  If  it  was 
necessary  for  a  time  to  separate  teaching,  adminis- 
trative, and  missionary  orders  in  the  Church,  these 
were  but  the  organs  of  a  common  life.  Gradations 
of  rank,  moreover,  are  by  no  means  the  same  as 
distinctions  of  work.  Governing  orders  belong 
peculiarly  to  the  missionary  stages  of  Christian 
history,  and  in  a  perfect  Church  are  as  needless  as 
criminal  judges  and  an  armed  constabulary  in  a 
country  free  from  crime.  In  every  new  generation 
the  Spirit  must  create  His  own  elect  servants,  and 
the  new  orders,  which  may  arise,  are  not  necessarily 
offshoots  from  the  old.  There  can  be  no  succession 
to  office  without  an  inward  call  and  a  congruous 
character,  and  these  two  things  imply  that  lowliness 
of  mind  which  refuses  to  think  of  oneself  in  any  other 
aspect  than  as  an  instrument  of  the  Spirit.  Self- 
exaltation  sterilises  the  vital  functions  of  office.  The 
names  under  which  various  types  of  ministerial 
service  are  spoken  of  describe  the  subdivided  parts  of 
the  labourers  in  a  common  task,  and  are  not  titles 
bestowed  to  enlist  admiration.  The  man  who  claims 
honour  for  himself  or  for  his  office,  apart  from  the 


THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  333 

work  which  the  Spirit  may  be  furthering  by  his  hand, 
forgets  the  enabHng  power,  without  which  he  is  less 
than  vanity.  Others  have  functions  equally  vital  to 
the  well-being  of  the  body,  and  those  functions  are 
often  hidden  from  the  public  view.  The  steward  of 
sacred  gifts  forfeits  his  character,  and  poses  for  some- 
thing better  than  he  really  is,  when  the  temptation  to 
boastfulness  and  parade  masters  him.  Those  who 
turning  many  to  righteousness  shine  as  the  stars 
think  little  of  themselves,  or  they  would  fail  in  their 
benign  ventures.  The  distinctions  of  human  pride 
must  be  thrown  down  before  the  new  distinctions  of 
grace  can  be  built  on  their  ruins.  Disciples  who 
would  be  great  must  trample  in  the  dust  the  honours 
which  tempt  them,  and  become  fools  for  the  sake  of 
the  kingdom. 

The  gifts  of  the  new  fellowship  are  common  to  all, 
and  the  assumption  of  any  kind  of  primacy  by  a 
select  few  tends  to  disparage  and  supersede  the 
illumination  of  the  many.  The  man  who  dreams 
that  he  has  been  singled  out  for  special  endowments 
and  for  a  standing  higher  than  that  of  his  comrades, 
is  in  no  less  dano-er  than  scribes  and  Pharisees  of 
landing  himself  and  his  adherents  in  a  miserable 
ditch.  It  is  a  perilous  thing  for  a  human  soul  to 
surrender  itself  to  the  will  of  a  spiritual  overlord,  and 
it  is  perhaps  still  more  perilous  to  the  aspirant  for 
chieftainship.  The  conscience,  through  which  God 
immediately  teaches  a  man,  is  subject  to  no  earthly 
tribunal,  and  he  who  claims  authority  to  reverse  its 
intimations  is  fighting  against  God.  In  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred  a  man  must  guide  himself 
through  all  the  incidents  of  his  daily  life  by  the 
normal  senses,  into  the  possession  of  which  he  has 


334  THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP 

been  born.  If  he  is  blind,  of  course  he  must  be 
indebted  to  the  eyes  of  others,  possibly  of  inferiors  ; 
and  i(  he  is  deaf,  he  must  guide  himself  by  the  quicker 
hearing  of  friends  and  neighbours.  But  in  the  field 
and  by  the  wayside  Nature  does  not  intend  that  any 
man  should  be  overruled  by  the  senses  of  his  so- 
called  "  betters."  And  the  analogy  holds  good  in 
spiritual  things.  Although  the  teacher  has  his  proper 
place  in  God's  order,  especially  for  the  young  and  the 
grossly  ignorant,  each  man's  spiritual  senses  must 
be  exercised,  and  when  this  is  neglected  spiritual 
development  ceases.  The  independent  use  of  the 
spiritual  senses  will  not  destroy  but  achieve  unity. 
If  a  few  autocrats  were  to  set  aside  the  testimony 
of  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  multitude  upon  simple 
questions  of  fact,  that  would  create  schisms  and  factions 
innumerable  rather  than  minimise  and  remove  them. 
In  all  the  higher  issues  of  the  spirit  every  disciple 
possesses  a  faculty  by  which  he  can  discern,  and  his 
fellow-disciples  must  respect  its  independence  and 
encourage  its  use.  Our  spiritual  gifts  are  meant  to 
be  common,  and  are  not  bestowed  to  single  us  out 
from  our  fellows.  The  prophet  who  went  to  Bethel 
acknowledged,  to  his  own  undoing,  the  primacy  of 
a  prophet  whose  inspiration  had  lapsed.  Hungry, 
thirsty,  and  faint,  desiring  perhaps  still  more  the 
support  and  recognition  of  a  fellow-prophet,  he 
slighted  the  voice  which  had  spoken  within  his  own 
breast,  and  which  would  have  continued  to  speak  if 
he  had  been  heedful.  In  a  temper  of  specious 
deference  and  affability  he  bowed  to  a  sham  primacy 
and  brought  upon  himself  swift  ruin.  By  putting 
yourself  into  the  Rabbi's  seat,  by  assuming  a  direc- 
torate over  the  souls  of  others,  you  may  be  contend- 


THE   COMMON    DISCIPLESHIP  335 


ing  against  the  one  Master's  voice  within  a  redeemed 
comrade,  and  bringing  that  comrade  to  his  overthrow. 
The  voice  which  speaks  within  every  man  blends 
with  the  voice  of  the  evangel  and  guides  sooner  or 
later  to  a  sure  salvation. 


XVII 

ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT 

"  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  u'hich  a  woman 
took,  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal,  till  it  was  all  leavened." 
— Matt.  xiii.  33. 

Leaven  is  a  living  organism  needing  the  same  con- 
ditions for  its  propagation  as  the  plants  around  us, 
and  must  not  be  classified  with  those  inanimate 
substances  which  occupy  the  study  of  the  chemist. 
The  fact,  of  course,  is  not  patent  to  the  casual  or 
half-equipped  observer.  In  this  familiar  thing, 
known  to  almost  every  race,  the  unaided  eye  sees 
only  a  thread  of  tiny  bubbles  ;  but  it  belongs  to  the 
kingdoms  of  life  as  truly  as  moss,  or  fern,  or  tree. 
Thirty  thousand  cells  occupy  one  square  inch  of 
space.  The  yeast-plant  multiplies  with  amazing 
rapidity,  and  the  only  limit  to  its  growth  is  the 
amount  of  meal  within  which  it  is  lodged.  When 
the  analogy  of  the  parable  is  fulfilled  among  the 
Churches  we  may  hope  to  see  a  nation  born  in  a 
day. 

For  our  present  purpose  it  is  needless  to  attempt 

an  answer  to  the  much-debated  question.  What  is 

336 


ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT  337 

life?  Its  principle  is  indefinable,  and  the  mystic 
riddle  baffles  our  clumsy,  groping  solutions.  Primi- 
tive man  found  out  the  properties  of  yeast  and 
applied  it  to  his  domestic  needs  centuries  before  any 
scientific  conception  of  its  nature  was  reached.  And 
it  is  possible  for  men  to  have  the  vital  secret  of 
religion  without  either  grasping  its  philosophy  or 
appreciating  the  intellectual  significance  of  the  pro- 
positions into  which  it  is  formulated.  The  kingdom 
proclaimed  by  Jesus  Christ  is  not  primarily  a  series 
of  dogmas,  although  sooner  or  later  faith  is  compelled 
to  define  itself  in  precise  and  logical  forms.  It  is  not 
a  collection  of  sacred  and  inspired  books,  although 
such  writings  set  forth  historic  facts  which  are  the 
foundation  of  the  Christian  religion  and  show  us  how 
to  gain  possession  of  this  inspired  ferment.  It  is  not 
systematised  knowledge  conveyed  in  orthodox  and 
well-balanced  creeds,  although  no  sane  man  would 
dispute  the  worth  of  such  creeds.  Schools  and 
families  and  nations  would  all  be  the  better  for 
definite  catechetical  teaching  given  in  fitting  places 
by  qualified  people,  and  at  the  cost  of  the  right  purse. 
But  the  spread  of  the  kingdom  is  not  determined  by 
these  methods.  We  cannot  extend  Christianity  by 
ingenious  apologetics,  for  in  the  beginning  it  is  a 
secret  and  hidden  leaven  whose  working  is  beyond 
the  cognisance  of  the  senses  and  whose  virtues  are 
unostentatiously  asserted  in  the  changes  wrought 
upon  man  after  man,  and  in  due  time  upon  the  whole 
world.  However  humble  our  gifts  and  obscure  our 
lot,  we  may  all  be  tracks,  channels,  sub-centres  of 
these  subtle  potencies  which  in  the  end  shall  assimi- 
late mankind  to  the  ideals  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  our 
souls  must  first   be  permeated   by  the  transforming 

23 


338  ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT 

experiences  which  we  are  to  convey  to  others.  When 
an  individual  Christian  or  a  Church  ceases  to  assimi- 
late to  its  character  and  Hfe  the  outside  world  the 
Divine  germ-cell  of  this  leaven  has  been  lost. 

Life  contains  within  its  own  keeping  the  shapes 
and  patterns  to  which  it  conforms,  and  accepts  no 
rigid  and  predetermined  schemes  of  outward 
structure  which  may  be  offered  to  it.  So  when  this 
mystic  force  disseminates  itself  through  human  souls 
it  accommodates  Itself  to  no  conventional  moulds. 
All  orders,  functions,  and  governments  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  are  built  up  by  it,  and  are  not  the 
conditions  out  of  which  it  is  generated.  To  hear 
some  people  talk  it  might  be  supposed  that  the 
secret  of  spiritual  assimilation  is  in  the  pattern  of 
the  vessel  which  contains  the  impregnated  meal,  and 
the  emblems  which  are  inscribed  upon  it,  and  not  in 
the  leaven  itself.  The  shape  of  the  vessel  within 
which  the  vital  processes  effect  themselves  is  a  trifle. 

This  benign  and  widespread  change  foreshadowed 
in  the  parable  implies  preceding  stages  of  prepara- 
tion. Not  only  must  there  be  the  work  of  the  plough 
and  the  seed-basket,  the  sickle  and  the  winnowing 
fan  in  the  field,  but  there  must  also  be  the  lighter 
toils  of  the  hand-quern  and  the  kneading  trough  in 
the  home.  The  yeast-plant  will  not  grow  in  a  barn 
bursting  with  wheat  -  harvests,  if  the  grain  be 
unhulled  ;  nor  even  in  a  mass  of  the  finest  flour  till 
the  flour  has  received  its  due  and  fitting  treatment. 
As  every  housewife  knows,  the  familiar  conditions 
must  be  met.  The  leaven  will  only  spread  and 
assimilate  that  within  which  it  is  lodged,  when  the 
flour  has  been  moistened  throughout  and  well  mixed 
together.     If  the  earlier  stages  are  ignored  and  the 


ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT  339 

liquid  ferment  is  poured  in  and  left  to  do  its  own 
work  and  that  of  the  kneading  hand  as  well,  failure 
and  waste  must  ensue.  It  is  necessary  that  the 
bread-maker  should  carefully  and  thoroughly  mingle 
the  ingredients.  Any  degree  of  muscular  energy 
spent  on  the  meal,  without  the  inpoured  leaven,  and 
any  amount  of  leaven  without  the  vigorous  mixing 
of  the  meal,  must  prove  futile  and  disappointing. 

If  humanity  is  to  be  renewed  and  assimilated  to 
spiritual  ideals,  there  must  be  diligent  teaching, 
public  and  private  exhortation,  faithful  witness- 
bearing  to  the  truth,  combined  at  the  same  time 
with  those  triturating  disciplines,  by  which  Provi- 
dence is  ever  making  the  heart  ready  for  the  power 
of  the  gospel.  It  is  only  too  easy  to  slur  over  these 
preliminary  conditions  which,  in  due  time,  usher  in 
the  silent  and  victorious  assimilations  of  the  Spirit. 
Men  need  to  be  the  subjects  of  these  initial  processes. 
Perhaps  we  see  little  of  the  virtues  of  the  leaven 
because  we  do  not  make  the  truth  understood  in  the 
circles  to  which  we  belong,  and  fail  in  pressing  it 
home  upon  the  heart  and  the  conscience.  In  those 
revivals  of  which  we  have  read  with  mingled  wonder 
and  gratitude — revivals  in  which  the  human  instru- 
ment all  but  vanishes  from  sight  and  the  self- 
propelling  and  self-sustaining  power  of  the  movement 
answers  to  the  essential  characteristics  of  this  leaven 
parable, — the  people  are  prepared  by  the  worship 
and  psalmody  of  the  fireside,  by  careful  training  in 
Sunday  Schools  and  Adult  Bible  Classes.  Such 
movements  are  impossible  amongst  communities  less 
completely  saturated  with  Scriptural  truth  and  with 
reverence  for  the  inspired  Word. 

It  is   to  be  feared  that  in   many  places  men    are 


340  ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT 

enlarging  their  knowledge  in  every  direction  but  one. 
They  know  more  of  literature,  of  art,  of  popular 
science  in  its  various  branches,  of  secular  history, 
than  did  their  forefathers,  but  less  of  the  Bible.  We 
need  to  instruct  the  individual  and  break  up  the 
husk  within  which  the  kernel  of  his  true  life  lies 
hidden,  so  co-operating  with  the  providence  which  is 
ever  striving  to  bring  out  of  all  the  experiences  of  the 
personal  history  true  self-knowledge.  The  essential 
qualities  of  the  nature  must  be  opened  up  to  view. 
It  is  fitting  that  the  truth  should  be  well  kneaded 
into  the  human  consciousness,  after  the  old  Jewish 
fashion  of  speaking  it  in  the  home,  and  when  walking 
by  the  wayside.  The  self-respecting  housewife  would 
feel  her  reputation  gone  if  lumps  of  flour  and  of 
heavy  dough  were  to  appear  in  the  bread  placed 
upon  the  table,  and  would  not  blame  the  leaven. 
The  crude  knowledge  shown  by  many,  for  whose 
instruction  we  are  responsible,  ought  to  make  us 
blush.  The  assimilating  power  of  the  gospel  cannot 
fully  show  itself  under  such  conditions  of  neglect. 
The  leaven  has  not  had  a  fair  chance,  at  least  in  our 
generation. 

Have  patience  with  the  preliminary  'processes, 
especially  in  the  benighted  regions  where  prejudice 
has  to  be  worn  down.  In  the  meal  made  from  sfrain 
grown  in  every  zone  of  the  earth  leaven  will  show  its 
virtue,  but  it  will  not  act  upon  unbroken  grain  and 
unkneaded  flour.  It  cannot  illustrate  its  dissemi- 
nating and  uplifting  qualities  till  the  first  steps  have 
been  taken  to  prepare  for  it  a  sphere.  This  unresting 
and  prolific  yeast-plant  is  no  labour-saving  invention 
or  discovery,  but  works  where  diligent  hands  have 
made  ready  for  it,  works  without  delay  or  failure. 


ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT  341 

A  summer  temperature  is  needed  for  the  culture 
of  the  leaven.  The  dough  will  not  rise  whilst  the 
thermometer  verges  on  freezing-point,  even  though 
days  and  w^eeks  be  given  for  the  experiment.  The 
different  yeasts  need  from  70  to  75  degrees 
Fahrenheit  for  their  growth.  Without  either  the 
warmth  of  the  summer  sun  or  a  glowing  fire,  how- 
ever long  the  kneaded  meal  may  be  left  in  the 
vessel  which  contains  it,  no  change  will  be  observed. 
A  temperature  too  low  on  the  one  hand  or  too  high 
on  the  other,  stunts  and  destroys  this  minute  plant, 
upon  which  fermentation  and  its  kindred  processes 
depend. 

If  the  principles  of  a  new  life  are  to  disseminate 
themselves  amongst  men,  and  society  is  to  be 
renovated  into  nobler  virtue  and  more  spiritual 
aptitudes,  an  atmosphere  of  fervour  must  encircle 
those  who  are  to  be  the  subjects  of  these  gracious 
changes.  The  genius  of  true  religion  may  be 
reduced  by  moods  of  frigidity  into  insipid  and 
empty  pretence,  or  turned  by  wildfire  fanaticism 
into  pernicious  soul-poisons.  We  need  to  avoid  the 
cold,  rationalistic  temper,  which  has  attenuated  the 
Christianity  of  some  periods  into  a  mere  philosophy 
tempered  with  morals  ;  and  also  to  watch  against 
the  riot  of  excitement  which  led  Edward  Irving  to 
crave  for  the  abnormal,  and  turned  his  great  career 
into  the  collapse  of  a  meteor.  Unless  the  environ- 
ment is  permeated  by  an  atmosphere  of  fervent 
affection  kindled  by  Divine  fire,  the  most  faultless 
enunciations  of  truth  and  the  most  correct  enforce- 
ments of  duty  will  fall  upon  unheeding  ears  and  hearts 
unresponsive  as  the  stones.  Let  zeal  and  love  be  want- 
ing in  those  encircling  influences  which  react  upon  the 


342  ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT 

soul,  and  the  evangel  will  prove  a  tissue  of  futilities, 
and  the  promise  of  assimilation  a  mockery.  In  spite 
of  its  origin  and  its  august  authority,  Christianity  can 
do  nothing  in  an  Arctic  atmosphere.  The  followers 
of  Jesus  ma\'  even  maintain  a  high  standard  of 
Christian  conduct  and  consistency,  but  where  there 
is  a  sense  of  constraint  and  frigidity,  and  the  tongues 
of  living  flame  fail,  real  religion  will  not  spread. 
Jesus  had  to  thaw  out  the  formalism  in  the  house  of 
Simon  the  Pharisee  before  He  could  make  the  heart 
of  the  woman  who  was  a  sinner  bound  with  the  high 
ecstasies  of  His  forgiving  and  renewing  love.  He 
created  a  genial  atmosphere  for  the  leaven. 

Christian  people  are  sometimes  accused  of  being 
proud,  stiff,  cold  as  glacier  caves — perhaps  unfairly 
accused,  for  shyness  and  constitutional  reserve  may 
sometimes  give  an  unreal  resemblance  to  such  faults. 
But  if  it  should  be  our  misfortune  to  create  this 
impression,  as  we  prize  the  gospel  and  its  influence 
upon  the  world,  we  must  take  pains  to  correct  the 
fault.  If  the  Divine  leaven  is  to  extend  its  virtues 
through  all  classes,  and  permeate  the  deepest  instincts 
and  sensibilities  of  society,  the  psychic  atmosphere 
must  glow  with  radio-active  kindness.  The  sublimer 
the  gospel,  the  more  difficult  is  it  to  spread  into 
men's  minds  and  subdue  their  natures,  without 
enkindled  fires  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  profess 
to  exemplify-  it.  The  evil  leaven  is  diffused  through 
warmth,  excitement,  sociability,  comradeship,  and  the 
leaven  of  good  is  dependent  upon  the  same  ardent 
sensibilities.  An  impassive  religion  cannot  save 
men  from  greed,  gambling,  the  frenzy  of  wine,  the 
tvrannies  of  lust.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  must  have 
strong  counter-excitements  wherewith  to  combat  the 


ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT  343 

gigantic  fascinations  of  this  world.  The  tendency 
to  eh'minate  strong  emotion  from  religion  is  a 
symptom  of  decadence,  and  arrests  effectual 
evangelism.  The  faith  which  does  not  bring  into 
play  the  forces  of  zeal  and  enthusiasm,  and  create 
a  new  atmosphere  for  the  moral  functions,  must  leave 
men  in  the  gross,  embruted  conditions  in  which  it 
finds  them. 

The  diffusion  of  leaven  through  a  given  mass  of 
meal  is  dependent  upon  contact.  The  particles 
already  permeated  must  touch  with  close  intimacy 
the  particles  not  yet  subdued  into  a  homogeneous 
whole.  Yeast  in  one  room  of  a  house  will  not 
convey  its  virtues  to  meal  in  another  room  of  the 
house,  partitioned  off  from  it  by  doors  and  walls. 
The  assimilation  process  going  on  before  the  house- 
wife's fire,  will  not  pass  through  the  flimsiest  screens 
without  connective  material,  and  repeat  itself  in  the 
bin  of  the  storeroom.  Leaven,  though  a  wonderful 
organism,  cannot  fl\'  across  the  tiniest  chasms  of 
empty  space.  It  must  have  tracks  and  bridgeways 
of  suitable  material  by  which  to  travel.  The  yeast- 
cell  has  neither  wings  nor  feet,  and  cannot  migrate 
into  meal  a  few  inches  apart.  It  spreads  by  a  chain 
of  continuous  organic  activities.  This  is  the  true 
doctrine  of  succession — a  doctrine  which  includes  the 
common  experience  of  the  disciples — and  if  a  link  is 
dropped  from  the  chain  society  suffers  a  tragic 
privation.  Interruption  means  widespread  and  in- 
calculable failure.  Whenever  a  group  of  particles  is 
intractable,  and  acts  as  a  check  to  the  vital  move- 
ment, the  particles  beyond  must  remain  untouched. 

Our  Lord's  ideas  of  the  spread  of  the  kingdom — 
ideas  enforced  by  personal  example  and  precept,  as 


344  ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT 

well  as  suggested  in  this  parable — involved  the  closest 
contact  between  the  multitude  of  the  disciples  and 
the  world  waiting  to  be  transformed  by  their 
influence.  Those  who  are  vibrant  with  the  new  life 
must  convey  the  inward  secret  to  those  who  lack  it, 
through  ever  open  channels  of  sympathy  and  inter- 
action. If  the  holy  leaven  is  to  be  spread  through 
us,  we  must  take  our  place  side  by  side  with  our 
neighbours,  and  share  their  daily  interests.  Aloofness 
is  the  most  potent  counteractive  to  the  diffusion  of 
the  gospel  which  has  yet  been  discovered.  We 
cannot  bring  the  liberating  principles  of  a  new  life 
to  our  fellow-citizens  unless  we  get  right  down  into 
their  hearts  and  establish  perfect  community  of 
feeling.  The  Lord  Jesus  could  not  heal  a  leper,  in 
agreement  with  His  own  methods  at  least,  without 
touching  him  and  making  him  akin  once  more  with  the 
elect  race.  The  poor  sufferer  found  it  hard  to  believe 
with  all  his  heart  whilst  he  was  an  outcast.  The 
Spirit  takes  account  of  the  laws  of  social  association 
and  reciprocity,  and  the  Divine  forces  which  have 
renovated  us  and  are  destined  to  renovate  the  world 
travel  along  the  tracks  of  those  laws.  The  leaven 
does  not  construct  for  itself  a  dozen  detached  and 
self-contained  centres  within  the  mass  of  the  meal. 
All  the  ramifications  of  the  yeast-plant  join  on  to  the 
primitive  cell  from  which  they  were  produced.  Social 
schisms  and  cleavages  may  arrest  the  redemptive 
developments  of  Christianity,  and  to  a  religious  man 
this  is  the  saddest  side  of  our  class-divisions.  If  at 
the  root  of  our  own  life  there  is  a  Divine  secret  of 
blessedness,  we  must  convey  it  to  those  who  are 
bound  up  with  us  in  the  same  social  organism,  and 
we  can  only  do  this  by  being  true  to  those  instincts 


ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT  345 


and  afifinities  which  relate  us  to  our  neighbours.  We 
try  to  evangelise  b}'  argument,  by  sermon,  by  the 
dissemination  of  literature,  by  theology  more  or  less 
polemical,  but  the  leaven  cannot  jump  over  those 
forms  of  cleavage  which  are  a  product  of  self- 
absorbed  and  worldly  tempers — disruptiv^e  forces 
which  at  the  present  moment  menace  the  very 
framework  of  our  civilisation.  That  the  gospel 
does  not  spread,  apart  from  the  genius  of  brother- 
hood, is  a  lesson  interwoven  with  the  structure  of 
the  parable.  The  ideas  of  feudalism,  even  in  the 
attenuated  forms  in  which  they  survive,  are  hostile  to 
the  gospel,  and  you  have  only  to  listen  to  the  speech- 
makers  and  lecturers  in  our  public  parks  to  learn 
this.  The  most  tremendous  barrier  to  the  spread  of 
Christianity  is  the  social  barrier,  and  if  we  were 
honestly  set  on  the  prosperity  of  God's  kingdom  our 
class-schisms  would  be  swept  away,  and  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  would  acquire  an  unexampled  mastery 
over  the  thoughts  of  men. 

The  divisive  temper  of  caste,  the  monastic  walls 
which  shut  off  the  unregeneracies  of  an  outside 
world,  the  tub  of  the  philosopher  when  he  happens 
to  be  a  baptized  c}'nic,  the  library  door  of  the  intel- 
lectual recluse  who  is  privately  a  devout  Christian, 
are  so  many  barricades  which  intercept  the  leaven, 
because  they  isolate  from  each  other  the  spiritualised 
and  the  unspiritualised  peoples  of  our  times.  Not 
infrequently  it  is  the  poor  man  who  has  a  religion  to 
give  to  the  rich,  and  the  rich  can  never  receive  it  from 
him  whilst  these  supercilious  distinctions  prevail. 
The  swift  and  incalculably  mighty  influence  of 
genuine  discipleship  will  only  begin  to  be  known 
when  the  valleys  are  filled  and  the  hills  brought  low. 


346  ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT 

The  work  of  evangelising  the  non-Christian  races  of 
the   world    is    sometimes    slow   because    the   white 
missionary    cannot    forget    his    superiority    to    the 
yellow,  the  brown,  or  the  black  man,  and  put  himself 
by  close  sympathy  into  the  same  groove  of  life.     For 
the  sake  of  his  wife  and  children,  and  perhaps  also  in 
the    interests   of    his   own    health,   he   is   compelled 
to  dissociate  himself  from  native  habits  and  interests. 
But  the  separation  is  carried  too  far  and  neutralises 
his  influence.      When  a  native,  be  his  place  in   the 
scale  of  civilisations  high  or  low,  is  looked  upon  as  fit 
only  for  serfdom  and  kept  in  quarantine,  there  is  but 
a  poor  chance  of  bringing  him   to  share  our  faith. 
Leaven  does  not  drop  down  from  the  heights  of  the 
clouds.     However  much  we  may  deplore  the  curious 
growth    of  Ethiopianism,   and    see   in    many   of  its 
features    omens    of    a    sad    apostasy,   we    have    to 
remember  that  the  jingoism  of  the  white  missionary 
has  sometimes  provoked  the  movement.    The  problem 
in    our  own,  as   well    as    in    other   countries,  is   the 
problem    of    social    disparity   rather   than    a   purely 
spiritual  problem.     The  leaven  will  take  care  of  itself 
and    its    own    virtues   if  we   give   the   conditions   it 
requires.    A  holy  life  passed  in  a  Park  Lane  mansion 
will  not  change  the  moral  atmosphere  in  a  tenement 
house  in  Stepney.     A  defect  in  the  sense  of  brother- 
hood arrests  the  vitalising  influence  of  an  example, 
in  other  respects,  perhaps,  of  noteworthy  godliness. 
We  have  our  fashionable  churches,  our  churches  for 
the    professional   classes,  our   middle-class   churches, 
our   labour   churches,   and  our  slum    missions  ;    and 
till  society  is  reorganised  upon  a  broader  and  more 
humane    basis   it   is  difficult  to  see  how  we  are   to 
escape    such    anomalies.      But    it  is  the  social    gulf 


ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT  347 

which  separates  multitudes  of  men  and  women  from 
the  leaven  acting  within  the  limited  circles  of  the 
faithful.  The  problem  of  the  world's  salvation  is  for 
the  moment  a  social  problem.  The  leaven  put  into 
fine  flour  in  Buckingham  Palace  or  Grosvenor  Square 
is  not  likely  to  act  upon  the  second-grade  meal  in  a 
Wapping  or  Whitechapel  kitchen,  because  the  social 
gulf  intervenes.  It  must  spread  by  contiguity  but 
with  many,  who  need  to  be  permeated  by  the  spirit 
and  power  of  the  gospel,  the  average  Christian  does 
not  desire  any  closer  intimacy,  and  would  shrink  from 
the  mere  mention  of  it.  Society  is  too  deeply 
intersected  for  the  pure  and  vital  leaven  to  assert  its 
power.  If  an  East-end  saint  is  to  change  for  good 
the  character  of  a  West-end  worldling,  or  if  a  West- 
end  saint  is  to  inspire  with  new  and  sublime  thoughts 
the  waster  of  Old  Kent  Road,  we  need  a  new  set  of 
social  conditions.  Leaven  requires  sympathy  and 
intimate  unreserved  contact  as  the  first  condition  for 
the  assertion  of  its  mysterious  virtues. 

Social  contiguity  explains  the  spread  of  all 
religions  quite  as  much  as  the  fascination  of  the 
truths  they  teach.  Moses,  the  man  of  God,  under- 
stood this  when  he  gave  to  the  children  of  Israel 
the  broad  constitution  under  which  they  and  their 
descendants  were  to  live.  He  crystallised  into  his 
civil  code  the  temper  of  brotherhood  which  had  been 
the  note  of  a  simple  patriarchal  life.  At  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  land  equal  allotments  were  made.  The 
religion  of  Jehovah  would  not  have  taken  such  a 
tenacious  and  widespread  hold  upon  the  Jewish  race 
but  for  the  fact  that  in  the  beginning  they  enjoyed  a 
common  civic  life,  and  were  in  the  closest  possible 
intimacy  with  each  other.     The  swift  and  marvellous 


348  ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT 

spread  of  Buddhism  throughout  India  is  to  be 
explained  by  a  similar  principle.  That  religion  set 
itself  to  destroy  caste,  as  well  as  to  throw  down  every 
barrier  between  man  and  the  lower  kingdoms  of  life- 
It  was  easy  for  any  system  with  a  core  of  good  in  its 
ethic  to  spread  when  the  distinction  between  high- 
born and  low-born,  rich  and  poor,  prince  and  peasant, 
had  passed  away  and  soul  could  meet  soul  on 
common  ground.  Islam  owes  not  a  little  of  its 
success  to  this  same  cause.  The  sword  has  been 
freely  used,  but  the  equality  of  slave  and  master,  of 
Arab  and  Negro,  in  the  sight  of  God  was  upheld  from 
the  beginning.  The  converse  of  the  desert  is  free, 
and  there  are  no  barriers  between  man  and  man.  It 
is  only  when  men  get  into  great  cities  that  castes 
and  their  rigid  separations  become  possible  and  com- 
munities are  no  longer  homogeneous.  If  imperfect 
religions  could  spread  where  a  temper  of  equality  and 
free  mutual  intercourse  prevailed,  how  victoriously 
ought  a  more  perfect  religion  to  spread  when  it  can 
secure  the  same  conditions  of  comradeship  ? 

The  most  notable  revivals  appear  in  villages  and 
small  towns  where  the  old-fashioned  clannishness 
has  not  quite  died  out  and  neighbours  take 
interest  in  each  other.  Perhaps  the  eighteenth- 
century  revival  could  scarcely  repeat  itself  in  an 
England  of  overgrown  towns  and  cities,  where 
people  live  next  door  for  a  decade  and  scarcely 
know  each  other's  names.  We  should  be  nearer 
to  great  revivals  in  our  swarming  cities  if  we  could 
restore  the  genial  intimacy  of  the  past,  which  put 
people  into  complete  and  familiar  understanding 
with  each  other.  Some  one  has  described  cities  as 
great  conspiracies,  and  most  of  us  have  felt  at  times 


ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT  349 

the  strangeness,  bordering  on  antagonism,  which 
meets  us  in  the  seething  crowd.  Cities,  by  the  wide 
divisions  and  the  isolating  reserves  they  foster,  are 
conspiracies  against  the  gospel,  for  the  Christian 
leaven  can  only  spread  through  that  temper  of  genial 
contiguity,  which  is  all  but  extinct  in  some  huge 
centres  of  population. 

This  parable  suggests  that  congruity  of  character 
is  at  the  root  of  a  genuine  and  prosperous  evangel. 
The  analogy  carries  with  it  the  lesson  that  soul- 
renewing  truth  can  only  reach  the  community  at 
large  through  the  holy  tempers  and  the  upright  lives 
of  those  who  have  already  received  it.  The  principle 
of  moral  assimilation  determines  the  spread  of  the 
kingdom  and  the  uprising  of  those  virtues  which  are 
a  sign  of  its  sure  establishment.  One  handful  of 
meal  cannot  convey  leaven  to  another,  unless  it  has 
itself  undergone  this  specific  transformation.  The 
parable  is  a  rebuke  to  the  spurious  evangelism  which 
is  academic  or  professional  only.  The  characteristic 
graces  of  Christianity  are  not  created  by  new  theories 
of  morals  or  new  phases  of  doctrine,  nor  yet  by 
conformity  to  an  appointed  code  of  rites  and  ordi- 
nances. The  new  life  is  not  produced  by  the 
supernatural  acts  of  a  priesthood  or  through  the 
official  functions  of  a  separated  ministry.  A  historic 
succession  may  be  temporarily  invalidated  by  the 
corrupt  temper,  or  the  lax  conduct  of  the  man  who 
boasts  himself  of  orders  for  which  he  is  glaringly  unfit. 
We  hear  it  affirmed  by  certain  schools  with  audacious 
iteration,  that  grace  is  conveyed  through  sacramental 
channels  in  virtue  of  an  episcopal  ordination,  and 
that  its  measure  and  degree  are  quite  independent 
of    the    personal    character    of    the    man    who    may 


350  ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT 


minister  at  font  or  altar.  A  greedy,  incestuous, 
blood-guilty  celebrant  of  the  Christian  mysteries,  by 
the  inviolable  prerogatives  with  which  he  was  invested 
through  the  laying-on  of  hands,  brings  the  germ  of 
a  new  life  into  the  child  he  baptizes  and  conveys 
the  presence  of  the  Redeemer  to  the  communicant 
who  receives  the  wafer  at  his  hand,  while  the  sacra- 
ments of  Richard  Baxter,  Samuel  Rutherford, 
Thomas  Chalmers,  John  Angell  James  and  Charles 
H.  Spurgeon,  are  void  of  grace.  It  is  true  that  a 
bad  representative  of  Christ  cannot  keep  a  contrite 
soul  out  of  communion  with  the  Lord,  but  it  is 
equally  true  that  the  gift  which  unites  him  to  the 
Lord  may  not  necessarily  come  through  a  sacrament, 
still  less  through  a  sacrament  dispensed  by  unclean 
hands.  The  unholy  ministrant  in  sacred  things 
cannot  make  a  disciple's  salvation  surer — no,  not 
even  by  virtue  of  his  office  as  distinguished  from  his 
character.  The  Spanish  Friars  whose  bastards  swarm 
in  the  chief  cities  of  the  Philippines,  and  the  French 
clergy  who  had  a  leading  share  in  the  Dreyfus 
plot,  can  have  no  power  to  impart  the  gifts  which 
renew  and  make  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The 
man  whose  inmost  self  is  not  leavened  cannot  leaven. 
The  meal  upon  which  the  yeast-plant  is  not  acting 
cannot  change  the  meal  adjacent  to  it.  "  I  convey  grace 
in  virtue  of  my  orders,"  says  the  priest.  Surely  this 
is  one  of  the  most  humiliating  doctrines  ever  taught  in 
the  name  of  God's  Son,  and  tends  to  degrade  Chris- 
tianity itself  into  a  non-ethical  religion.  The  drift 
of  the  parable  is  inconsonant  with  such  assumptions. 
Grace  depends  for  its  spread  from  soul  to  soul  upon 
the  principle  of  congruity.  Those  whose  natures 
are  dominated  by  the  leaven  spread  the  leaven,  and 


ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT  351 

others,  tio  matter  how  high  their  status  in  the  Church, 
are  quite  incapable  of  helping  on  this  issue.  A 
man's  own  character  must  be  assimilated  by  the 
spiritual  potencies  which  work  within  him,  before  he 
can  convey  to  others  the  secret  of  transformation. 
He  who  is  saved  becomes  a  channel  of  the  grace  that 
saves,  and  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  an  unsaved  man 
to  sustain  this  benign  function.  A  good  disciple 
spreads  the  virtue  which  has  made  him  good  and 
helps  on  the  same  change  in  others  ;  whilst  an  unreal 
disciple — a  disciple  only  in  outward  office  or  pro- 
fession— cannot  convey  that  which  he  does  not  possess 
and  experience.  No  soul  in  the  great  contemporary 
multitude,  of  which  we  form  a  part,  will  be  leavened 
by  us  unless  we  ourselves  are  leavened.  The  best 
and  most  successful  disseminators  of  the  gospel 
are  those  who  live  it.  We  must  teach,  exhort, 
convince,  encourage,  but  groups  of  conversions  are 
produced  only  by  groups  of  earlier  conversions. 
Open  your  natures  to  all  the  influences  and  energies 
of  the  gospel,  and  then  let  your  suffused  faculties 
act  freely  upon  friends  and  neighbours,  for  to  these 
conquests  of  silent  assimilation  there  is  no  limit 
but  the  frontiers  and  horizons  of  the  world. 

The  highest  and  most  influential  evangelism  rests 
upon  collective  action.  This  parable  is  a  charter 
which  asserts  the  place  of  the  elect  multitude  in 
bringing  near  the  kingdom  of  God  amongst  men. 
Jesus,  of  course,  did  not  intend  to  depreciate  the 
services  rendered  to  His  cause  by  men  endowed 
with  special  gifts  of  the  Spirit  and  qualified  by 
personal  companionship  with  Himself.  The  Church 
He  was  founding  must  needs  have  teachers  and 
guides.     Some  of  His  parables  deal  with  the  tasks 


352  ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT 

of  the  household  in  which  He  was  Master,  and  with 
the  conduct  of  the  servants.  In  the  parables  of 
The  Sower  and  of  The  Drag  Net,  as  well  as  in 
that  of  the  Tares,  we  see,  moving  to  and  fro,  the 
figures  of  those  whom  He  has  associated  with  Him- 
self in  the  ministry  of  the  truth.  He  sent  apostles 
and  evangelists  to  heal  and  to  teach  in  all  the 
places  whither  He  Himself  would  come.  But  dis- 
tinctions of  order,  function,  and  differentiated  ser- 
vice disappear  from  this  parable,  which  is,  perhaps, 
the  picture  of  a  later  epoch  than  some  of  the 
introductory  parables.  Great  issues  in  the  after- 
days  are  limned  by  this  Divine  Seer.  The  meal 
in  which  leaven  is  lodged  may  be  of  wheat  from 
the  Plain  of  Sharon  or  the  Valley  of  Sychar,  from 
the  uplands  of  Moab,  or  the  heights  of  Lebanon. 
Different  strains  of  wheat  may  have  been  blended 
together,  as  in  our  own  day.  But  each  fragment 
of  the  mass,  coarse  and  fine  alike,  shares  in  receiving 
and  giving  forth  this  wholesome  principle  of  assimi- 
lation. It  is  not  the  exclusive  privilege  of  apostle, 
evangelist,  pastor,  or  teacher,  to  convey  the  grace 
which  renews  and  uplifts  the  world.  All  that  goes 
to  make  the  meal  has  been  reduced  to  one  common 
term,  and  the  transmission  of  the  mystic  vitalities 
of  the  gospel  is  not  limited  to  sacraments  or  reserved 
to  those  who  administer  them.  The  life  in  the 
leaven  runs  through  the  channels  open  in  the  souls 
of  all. 

The  swift,  complete,  and  resistless  growth  fore- 
shadowed in  this  parable  follows  upon  collective 
action.  In  the  parable  of  the  Mustard  Seed,  which 
is  often  taken  to  represent  the  growth  of  those  in- 
stitutions characteristic  of  Christian  civilisations,  the 


ASSIMILATION    BY  CONTACT  35:5 

developments  indicated   may   be   more  or  less  slow. 
The  parable  of  the  Sower  needs  long  seasons  for  the 
working  out  of  its  issues,  and  we  must  not  assume 
that    the    percentage   of    failure    will    always    be   so 
discouraging.      The    lesson    of  the    leaven    suggests 
that  character  can  change  quickly,  and  rapid  trans- 
formations take  place  sooner  than  we  look  for,  and 
upon  a  wider  scale.     We  sometimes  say,  "  Great  and 
enduring   things    need    decades    and    centuries    for 
their    development."     The    axiom    is    used    as    an 
apology  for  the  slow   progress  of  the  gospel,  espe- 
cially  in    Eastern    lands.     This    is   so   far  true  that 
in  some  countries   little  success  appears  in  the  first 
and  even    in    the  second    generation    of  missionary 
labour.      Perhaps  the  Scriptures  have  to   be  trans- 
lated   into   a   difficult  and  complex  language,  and 
a   Christian    literature    must   be   built   up   from  un- 
promising    foundations.       Hymnology    has     to     be 
adapted  and  acclimatised.     It  may  also  happen  that 
pride  has  to  be  worn  down,  long  accretions  of  pre- 
judice removed,  and   rooted  suspicions  dispelled  by 
the   patient  philanthropies  of  a  lifetime.       In  lands 
long  imbued  with  Christian  traditions  men  of  certain 
types  of  temperament  are  not  easily  moved.     The 
missionary  pushes  his  way   out   to   the   virgin    soil 
of  an    unoccupied   city,   or   an    unvisited    province, 
and   a   few   converts   gather   around   him,  and  then 
for  decades  afterwards  little  or  no  progress  is  made. 
A   revival   breaks    out  in  an  English  village  and  a 
series  of  remarkable   conversions    takes   place,    and 
then  little  or  no  appreciable  advancement  is  made 
for    years.     The    early    success    is    not   continuous. 
Does   not  this   parable  shed  light   upon  such  prob- 
lems ?      Certain    parables  contemplate  the  work  of 

24 


354  ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT 

the  first  heralds  of  the  kingdom.  After  a  few 
sporadic  successes  the  hearers  lose  interest,  and 
religion  seems  to  be  at  a  standstill.  In  this  domestic 
picture,  which  has  its  own  special  aspects  and 
meanings,  the  work  advances  swiftly  to  the  goal. 
It  perhaps  reflects  the  second  stage  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  Church,  the  stage  at  which  the  evan- 
gelism of  the  apostolic  pioneer  is  taken  up  and  carried 
on  by  the  common  zeal  and  enterprise  of  a  sanctified 
multitude  of  believers.  If  we  would  learn  the  lesson 
of  the  parable,  and  take  home  the  truth  the  Master 
has  in  mind,  we  must  recognise  that  the  centre 
of  a  world-renewing  energy  is,  in  the  aggregate, 
activity  of  the  Church.  The  evangelism  which  issues 
in  supreme  triumph  must  be  collective.  When  we 
appreciate  this  a  new  era  of  prosperity  comes  into 
view,  and  the  gospel  disseminates  itself  with  a  silent 
swiftness,  of  which  this  parable  is  a  prophetic  symbol. 
Apparent  stagnation,  the  lack  of  the  power  which 
converts  and  transforms,  success  disappointingly 
partial,  may  belong  to  the  transition  periods  between 
the  revivals  which  are  led  by  a  chosen  band  of 
heroic  evangelists,  and  the  revivals  which  are  pro- 
moted and  carried  to  mighty  issues  by  the  common 
action  of  the  believing  crowd.  The  progress  in- 
dicated by  the  swift  growth  of  the  leaven  may 
belong  to  the  times  when  the  apostles,  and  those 
upon  whom  their  mantles  fell,  have  passed  out  of 
view,  and  multitudes  in  every  land,  filled  with  the 
sacred,  strenuous  energies  of  the  new  life,  infect 
others  with  their  blessed  inspirations. 

Now  and  again  happy  revivals  arise  which  illus- 
trate one  of  the  foundation  thoughts  of  this  parable. 
The   neighbour   is   stimulated  and  sanctified  by  the 


ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT  355 


spiritual  dispositions  of  his  neighbour.  Leaven  is 
life,  and  life  is  leaven,  and  each  particle  of  the  mass 
helps  the  change  in  adjacent  particles.  When  men 
sink  themselves  and  forget  the  outstanding  rights 
and  honours  of  the  separate  vocations  to  which  they 
are  called,  when  distinctions  of  order  and  diffe- 
rentiated function  are  lost  sight  of,  and  a  common 
impulse  moves  those  who  are  followers  of  Christ 
to  collective  action,  only  then  does  the  gospel  grow 
with  a  pace  which  amazes,  and  its  characteristic 
graces  begin  to  dominate  the  community.  In  the 
meanest  and  most  obscure  member  of  the  devout 
multitude  there  is  something  on  which  the  leaven 
can  fasten  and  extend  the  area  of  its  gracious 
vitality.  The  layman  is  just  as  good  a  vehicle  of 
this  sacred,  subtle  force  as  the  man  in  orders.  It 
is  the  aggregation  of  cells  which  gives  rise  to  new 
colonies  of  cells.  This  parable  hints  at  the  amazing 
influence  which  will  yet  be  exerted  by  a  sanctified 
democracy.  It  puts  an  approving  seal  upon  the 
work  of  the  common  people.  The  millennium  will 
be  brought  to  pass  by  a  series  of  people's  revivals. 
The  prophecy  of  the  Pentecost  contemplated  this, 
and  treats  young  and  old,  male  and  female,  as  the 
subjects  of  plenary  and  impartial  inspirations. 

When  the  leaven  has  reached  a  certain  point  of 
growth,  the  after-work  must  be  promptly  undertaken. 
Delay  or  procrastination  is  disastrous  once  the  yeast- 
plant  has  attained  its  full  limits  and  subdued  the 
meal.  If  the  ferment  is  allowed  to  continue  after 
this  stage  has  been  reached,  the  sugar  on  which 
the  leaven  feeds  is  exhausted,  and  the  mass  of  dough 
turns  sour.  When  the  mysterious  forces  of  the 
gospel    are  acting    upon    the    minds    around    us,   we 


356  ASSIMILATION    BY   CONTACT 


must  allow  time  for  the  processes.  It  may  be  fatal 
to  hurry  the  subtle  changes  which  are  taking  place 
beneath  the  surface.  But  on  the  other  hand,  undue 
delay  may  be  equally  mischievous.  A  moment  arises 
when  the  great  decision  must  be  taken  and  the 
will  must  mature  its  resolves.  If  religious  influences 
play  too  long  upon  the  mind,  and  the  practical 
issues  of  the  Christian  profession  are  declined  or 
postponed,  the  mind  itself  may  be  soured  against 
spiritual  things,  and  the  first  promise  of  good  may 
be  irrevocably  lost.  The  processes  must  ripen  into 
vow,  holy  deed,  and  open  association  with  Jesus 
and  His  cause. 


XVIII 
INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

"  For  each  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden." — Gal.  vi.  5. 

"  Neither  be  partaker  of  other  men's  sins." — i  Tim.  v.  22. 

"  For  what  is  our  hope  or  joy  or  crown  of  glorying?  Are 
not  even  ye  before  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at  His  coming  ?  " — 
I  Thess.  ii.  19. 

Is  the  law  of  responsibility  merely  individual  in  its 
applications,  or  does  it  stretch  far  and  wide  into  that 
social  organism  of  which  each  man  is  a  sentient 
and  effectual  part  ?  Are  all  the  fibres  through  which 
the  Divine  judgments  must  one  day  make  themselves 
felt,  shut  up,  like  the  filaments  of  the  nervous  system, 
within  the  compass  of  the  body,  and  do  they  abruptly 
end  with  the  finger-tips  ?  or  may  the  influence  of  acts 
which  affect  large  sections  of  the  community  come 
back  with  accelerated  force  into  the  personality  from 
which  they  issued  ?  Let  us  put  the  question  into  a 
commercial  metaphor.  Is  a  man  in  the  position  of 
the  individual  capitalist  who  risks  nobody's  money 
but  his  own  and  whose  gains  and  losses  are  strictly 
personal  ?  or  is  he  in  the  position  of  one  who  directs 
the    interests    of  a  society,   and  whose  doings    may 

blight  or  bless  countless  homes  ?     Or  does  the  truth 

357 


358  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 


lie  somewhere  between  these  two  extremes,  and 
include  both  personal  and  social  factors  ? 

The  traveller  in  Eastern  deserts  sometimes  sees 
a  solitary  palm-tree  by  a  well.  It  has  an  axial  root, 
which  goes  deep  down  into  the  sand  in  search  of 
moisture,  but  has  no  lateral  roots  ramifying  right 
and  left.  No  branches  are  thrust  out  from  the  stem, 
but  it  breaks  at  the  top  into  a  tuft  of  fronds.  What 
a  symbol  of  isolation  !  Even  when  the  palm-tree 
grows  in  groups  and  groves  the  same  peculiar  sense 
of  separateness  is  produced.  There  are  no  lateral 
extensions,  no  interlacing  outgrowths.  The  tree 
seems  set  upon  living  its  own  life,  disclaiming  all 
relations  with  its  neighbours.  In  other  regions  of  the 
East  the  traveller  sees  the  mangrove  and  banyan- 
trees,  which  drop  adventitious  roots  from  their 
branches  and  propagate  new  stems,  till  at  last  a 
growth  covering  the  area  of  a  small  spinney  is 
produced,  which,  after  all,  is  practically  one  organism. 
The  original  stem  can  scarcely  be  identified,  for  the 
functions  of  the  tree  are  merged  and  all  parts  share 
one  common  life.  It  is  said  that  one  such  tree  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nerbudda  River  is  able  to  shelter 
seven  thousand  men. 

Is  the  root  of  responsibility  in  a  human  being  axial 
only,  or  do  responsibilities  extend  beyond  the  area 
of  the  individual  life  and,  for  good  or  evil,  interweave 
their  fibres  into  adjacent  lives  ?  Is  man  an  individual 
growth  only,  or  must  he  be  looked  upon  as  the 
member  of  a  confederated  colony  of  growths  ? 

Does  a  family,  a  church,  a  municipality,  a  nation, 
possess  a  common  life,  for  the  qualities  of  which  the 
separate  members,  in  proportion  to  their  influence, 
must  be  held  jointly  responsible  ?     May  a  man  help 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  359 

or  hinder  his  nei^rhbour  in  the  things  which  pertain 
to  salvation,  as  well  as  in  the  pursuit  of  just  social 
ideals?  Does  he,  like  Timothy,  sometimes  need  to 
be  reminded  of  the  fact  that  it  is  possible  he  may  be 
a  participator  in  other  men's  sins,  and  that  perhaps 
without  intending  it?  May  he,  like  Paul,  be  justified 
in  describing  those  for  whose  well-being  he  has  toiled 
as  the  crown  of  his  rejoicing  in  the  day  of  Jesus 
Christ  ?  Is  there  a  law  of  social  responsibility  so 
sure  that  in  the  Judgment  Day  men  will  be  abased 
or  exalted,  in  strict  proportion  to  the  way  in  which 
they  have  directly  or  indirectly  dealt  with  their 
neighbours  ?  Is  it  possible  for  any  man  to  really 
isolate  himself  from  his  contemporaries,  like  the 
anchorites  of  the  Egyptian  deserts,  the  castaway 
sailor  on  his  lonely  island,  or  the  lighthouse-keeper 
ten  miles  out  at  sea,  and  so  to  live  his  life  that  the 
law  of  reciprocal  influence,  and  the  issues  with  which 
it  is  pregnant,  may  pass  him  by?  Can  we  claim  the 
exemptions  which  might  rightly  belong  to  Alexander 
Selkirk? 

The  law  is  just  and  reasonable  which  distinguishes 
between  "  the  leader  "  in  a  misdemeanour  and  "  an 
accessory,"  although  the  distribution  of  guilt  between 
the  two  may  sometimes  turn  upon  subtle  factors  which 
elude  our  knowledge.  Every  normally  constituted 
man  is  the  prime-mover  in  his  own  transgression  ; 
but  at  God's  bar,  those  who  put  temptation  in  his 
path,  harden  him  on  in  wrong-doing,  or  make  it  any- 
wise difficult  for  him  to  do  right,  are  accounted 
accessories.  This  self-evident  principle  is  full  alike 
of  encouragement  and  of  stern  admonition.  There  is 
no  soul  in  the  pain  and  blackness  of  final  perdition, 
but    others    have    helped    its    overthrow.      The    lost 


36o  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

have  unnamed  and  unknown  partners  in  their  guilt 
and  condemnation.  And  there  is  no  redeemed  spirit 
in  the  presence  of  God's  throne  in  heaven,  but  others 
have  helped  on  the  happy  escape  from  the  destruc- 
tions of  sin  and  done  something  in  the  work  of  making 
meet  that  spirit  for  the  realms  of  light.  Saints  in 
glory  have  owed  much  to  the  fidelity  of  their  fore- 
fathers, the  prayers  and  intercessions  of  the  Church, 
the  edification  ministered  by  their  brethren  in  the 
faith  ;  and  have  sleeping  partners  who  shall  in  due 
time  be  exalted  in  their  triumph  and  beatified  in 
their  eternal  gains. 

Our  ideas  of  responsibility  are  too  often  chaotic  ; 
and  culpably  so.  We  use  the  doctrine  of  environ- 
ment to  minimise  personal  responsibility,  and  we 
use  the  doctrine  of  individual  moral  agency  to 
minimise  our  collective  responsibilities,  and  in  this 
way  we   confuse   and  deaden    our  social  conscience. 

The  preacher  of  social  evolution  flourishes  before 
us  the  vague,  pedantic  catchword  "  environment," 
and  does  his  best  to  attenuate  to  a  vanishing-point 
the  doctrine  of  personal  responsibility.  The  good 
and  evil  in  human  life  do  not  issue  from  acts  of 
self-determination,  but  are  the  products  of  rigid 
antecedents.  If  they  could  really  choose,  most  men 
would  be  other  than  they  are,  not  in  station  only 
but  in  mind  and  disposition.  Temperament  arises 
from  many  ingredients  which  for  centuries  have 
been  slowly  depositing  themselves  within  the  blood. 
Early  training  in  which  the  individual  himself  had  no 
voice,  roughs  in  the  broad  outlines  of  the  personality. 
The  sympathies  are  excited  by  companionships 
which  come  in  the  way  of  the  youth  and  are  not 
deliberately   selected.      The    standard    of    manners 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  361 

is   formed    in    the   railway   carriage,    the   office,    the 
Club,  the  Exchange,  and  the  Daily  Press  plays  its 
little    part    in    the    scheme.       Men    obey    external 
impulses    through    the    formative    periods    of  their 
history.      They   are   driven.      The   choice   is    made 
for  them,  and  they  have  scarcely  any  idea  that  they 
choose  for  themselves.     The  influences  which  shape 
and  colour   character   are  in  human   life  before  the 
man    himself    comes    there.      Environment    is    the 
foster-mother  of  all  that  appears  in  the  personality. 
But  what  is  environment?     Has  it  not  been  created 
by  the  impact  of  many  vanished  and  also  of  many 
contemporary  personalities  ?     It  is  simply  aggregate 
influence ;    and    aggregate  influence   is    but  another 
phase  of  collective  responsibility.     We  use  the  term 
as  though  it  denoted  what  is  impersonal,  whereas  it 
means  the  power  of  outside   personalities  over  the 
personal    character.      Such   a    plea    is,   after    all,   a 
disguised    testimony   to   the    fact  that    men    of  the 
past  and  men  of  the  present  generations  both  make 
their    contributions    to    those    ruling    standards   of 
conduct  which  help  to  mould  the  lives  around  us. 
On  the   other  hand,   there  are  teachers   who  put 
so    much   stress   upon    personal    moral  agency  that 
they    minimise   the    influence    men    have  over  each 
other's     characters.       The      doctrine     of    collective 
responsibility    is    made    to    pass    out    of  view   and 
responsibility    is   treated   as   though    it  were   rigidly 
separate  and  personal.     Man  is  not  a  manufactured 
article  who  does  that  for  which  he  was  moulded  and 
nothing  more,  and  the  voice  of  the  inward  conscious- 
ness agrees.     Each  member  of  the  race  is  just  what 
he   chooses    to    be,   and    hereditary    predispositions, 
together  with  the  social  influences  which  play  upon 


3^2  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

the  plastic  personality,  are  subordinate  factors  in 
the  sum-total  of  good  or  evil  accumulated  within  the 
life.  The  character  is  built  up  slowly  by  the  will, 
although  co-operative  influences  are  also  present, 
built  up  as  truly  as  each  polyp  of  the  coral  colony 
builds  its  own  addition  to  the  branching  fabric.  The 
child  born  into  the  world  is  free  to  take  his  own 
path  in  the  society  of  which  he  is  an  organic 
part,  and  the  guilt  of  transgression  or  the  peace 
which  instils  itself  into  a  life  of  virtue  is  his  own 
acquisition.  He  who  is  in  the  wrong  puts  himself 
into  that  unhappy  attitude,  and  has  no  one  upon 
whom  he  can  devolve  blame.  A  just  judgment, 
in  the  end  of  the  days,  must  be  primarily  personal  in 
the  range  and  intensity  of  its  application. 

The  doctrines  of  individual  and  collective  respon- 
sibility ought  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  mutually 
exclusive.  We  do  not  disprove  the  one  by  establish- 
ing the  other.  The  root-fact  in  human  life  is  that 
each  man  must  bear  his  own  burden  and  render 
account  to  God  ;  but  this  root-fact  may  have 
important  collateral  extensions.  The  abstract  notion 
of  an  environment  is  no  set-off  to  the  strict  doctrine 
of  individual  moral  agency,  with  all  that  it  involves 
and  implies.  Environment  is  in  part  a  mirror  passed 
on  by  others  as  an  heirloom,  in  which  we  may  see 
reflected  the  quality  of  influence  exercised  both  by 
preceding  and  contemporary  generations  ;  and  for 
that  influence  they  must  be  judged.  But  the 
equilibrium  is  restored.  We  in  our  turn  make  ready 
environments  both  for  our  contemporary  neighbours 
and  for  our  posterity,  and  these  new  environments 
are  mirrors  of  judgment  which  show  forth  the  tides 
of  influences  issuing  from  us  and  reaching  far  beyond 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  363 

the  circle  of  our  personal  history.  Social  account- 
ability is  an  inevitable  outgrowth  from  the  fact  of 
our  personal  accountability,  and,  however  much  we 
may  wish,  we  cannot  lop  off  the  outgrowth. 

Men  interpret  responsibility  as  their  interests 
suggest  or  the  expediencies  of  party  politics  re- 
quire. They  often  lay  stress  upon  that  particular 
aspect  of  the  subject  which  may  be  necessary  for 
their  self-justification.  Men  who  get  dividends  out 
of  the  weakness  and  degradation  of  their  fellows, 
give  a  narrow  interpretation  to  the  doctrine  of 
responsibility,  for  that  way  lies  the  exculpation 
of  the  trades  from  which  they  draw  a  livelihood 
or  glean  their  luxuries.  They  make  it  rigidly 
personal,  and  ignore  the  social  ramifications  and 
complexities  of  the  law. 

For  a  valiant  champion  of  the  truth  that  every 
man  must  bear  his  own  burden,  commend  me  to  a 
brewer  or  a  barman.  No  set  of  men  preach  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  and  all  that  it  entails  in  common 
life,  with  equal  loudness  and  volubility.  All  respon- 
sibility rests  with  the  individual  delinquent,  and  you 
cannot  cure  drunkenness  by  either  Act  of  Parliament 
or  recipes  from  Bergen  and  Gotenberg.  Really  these 
men  outclass  the  theologians,  in  the  astute  and 
ingenious  defences  they  make  of  the  doctrine  of 
moral  freedom.  Men  should  learn  self-control.  The 
people  need  education.  If  the  masses  had  religion  they 
would  not  fall  into  animal  excess.  The  liquor-dealer 
can  scarcely  be  held  accountable  for  the  inevitable 
abuses  contingent  upon  that  and  every  other  trade. 
It  is  a  matter  for  the  conscience  of  the  individual 
drinker.  He  and  he  only  is  responsible  and  deserves 
to    be   brought    to    book    for   the    mischief  done  to 


364  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

his  own  health  and  the  injustices  inflicted  upon 
pinched  wife  and  squalid  children.  One  who  has 
reached  years  of  discretion  ought  to  know  how  much 
he  can  take  without  injury,  and  stop  before  the  line 
is  overpassed.  The  barman  who  serves,  the  license- 
holder  who  hires  the  barman,  the  brewer  who  puts  in 
his  tenant,  the  magistrates  who  give  the  seal  of  their 
approval  to  the  license-holder  are  not  to  be  blamed  ; 
least  of  all  the  man  who  is  in  the  wholesale  part  of 
the  business,  and  lives  twenty  miles  away  from  the 
sordid  scene.  No  more  strenuous  advocate  of  the 
doctrine  of  personal  responsibility  is  to  be  found 
than  the  man  who  is  enriching  himself  through 
the  degradation  of  his  fellows.  The  owner  of  slum 
property  usually  belongs  to  the  same  school  of 
moral  philosophy.  It  is  the  hopeless  people  who 
make  the  slum,  and  the  slum-lord  must  not  be 
blamed  in  any  degree  for  the  foul,  degrading 
conditions  in  which  they  live.  Put  such  people  into 
a  Victoria  Street  or  a  Hampstead  flat,  and  they 
would  turn  it  into  a  stye  before  the  rent-collector 
came  round. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face 
with  a  school  of  secular  reformers  who,  in  pressing 
their  policy  of  social  betterment,  sometimes  ignore 
the  doctrine  of  personal  responsibility.  Men  drink 
because  they  live  in  the  tenement  houses  of  mean 
streets  rather  than  in  Garden  Cities.  They  bet  and 
gamble  for  lack  of  wholesome  excitements  and 
because  their  ill-paid  occupations  are  drearily  mono- 
tonous. They  cannot  do  otherwise  in  such  con- 
ditions. Till  the  abuses  of  our  civilisation  are 
rectified  and  society  is  reconstructed  upon  the  Fabian 
plan,  it  is  madness   to  blame  men    for   their   vices. 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  365 

They  are  irresistibly  driven.  Our  swarms  of  moral 
pariahs  are  not  more  culpable  than  the  fever  patient, 
who  has  escaped  from  the  hospital  tent  and  is 
wandering  in  delirium  upon  the  veldt.  The  blame, 
if  blame  there  is,  must  be  put  upon  society  and  those 
who  rule  in  its  name.  At  least  let  the  problem  be 
treated  as  an  abstract  problem  of  sociology.  But 
is  it  not  obvious  that  society,  after  all,  is  a  con- 
gregation of  responsible  persons? 

We  do  not  need  to  go  outside  our  own  hearts  to 
find  this  fine-spun  logic  of  shiftiness  and  confusion. 
We  disclaim  or  underestimate  our  responsibilities, 
at  the  bidding  of  fitful  moods  and  not  because  we 
have  deep  hold  of  the  truth  of  God's  judicial  order. 
If  we  have  settled  into  habits  of  open  sin  we  take 
a  mere  modicum  of  the  blame  to  ourselves,  and  by 
much  ingenious  argument  and  apology  show  that  we 
are  more  sinned  against  than  sinning.  Our  conduct 
has  been  determined  by  the  inevitable  associations 
of  our  lot  and  others  turned  us  aside  from  the  better 
things  to  which  we  were  looking.  The  element  of 
personal  responsibility  is  kept  well  out  of  view.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  have  played  some  worthy  part 
in  the  community  to  which  we  belong,  we  take  much 
of  the  credit  to  ourselves  and  make  light  of  the 
help  we  have  received  from  others.  It  was  our 
own  thought,  our  dogged  persistence,  our  heroic 
will-power  which  led  to  the  great  moral  achievement, 
and  we  owed  comparatively  little  to  the  counsel  and 
encouragement  of  friends.  We  were  the  makers  of 
our  own  spiritual  fortunes.  When  we  are  found  in 
sin,  we  put  stress  upon  the  collective  view  of 
human  responsibility  ;  but  if  we  do  what  is  right 
and  good,  we  put  stress  upon  the  individual  aspects 


^66  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 


of    responsibility   and    admit    no    partners    to   our 
honours. 

We  reverse  the  principle   if  we  have   to  explain 
unworthiness   in    those  who   once   belonged    to   our 
circle.     The  man   who  was   our   comrade   disgraces 
himself,  and   how  careful   we  are   to  prove  that  we 
had  practically  no  influence  over  him,  and  that  his 
lapse  is  purely  the  fruit  of  his  own  recklessness  and 
headstrong    folly.     On  the  other  hand,   if  one  who 
has    been    identified    with    us    becomes    known    for 
distinguished  service  to    the    kingdom   of  God    and 
the  cause  of  human  progress,  how  we   magnify   the 
influence  we  had  over  him  in  the   opening   periods 
of    his    history !     We   instructed    him.     In    days   of 
weakness    we    furnished    him    with    inspiration   and 
encouragement.     When  he  was  alone  in  his  struggles 
we  smiled  approval  upon   his   ideals  and  heartened 
him  through  many  hours  of  depression.     He  is  our 
protege.     Such   examples    serve   to   show  what  one- 
sided  judges  we  are,  and  how   to  suit  our  purpose 
we  emphasise  now  the  law  of  personal,  and  now  of 
collective  responsibility  ! 

In  primitive  ages  the  family,  the  tribe,  and  the 
nation  were  treated  as  though  it  were  involved  in 
the  offence  of  any  one  member  of  the  group  who  had 
shown  himself  a  law-breaker.  A  whole  household 
might  be  incriminated  by  the  act  of  a  prodigal 
member  of  it.  Such  usages  were  complementary  to 
the  autocratic  ideals  of  government  current  in  all 
ancient  communities.  If  one  governing  head  or  chief 
was  recognised  in  every  family  or  tribe,  it  was  a  part 
of  the  compact  to  treat  all  moral  failures  in  the  group 
as  due  to  his  slackness  or  corrupt  example.  He  was 
the  keynote.     In  the  days  of  Socrates  ideas  of  in- 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  367 

dividual  freedom  had  been  long  established,  and  yet 
his  accusers  tried  to  inculpate  him  before  the  judges 
by  pointing  to  the  evil  record  of  some  of  his  most 
assiduous  disciples.  Such  axioms  are  still  observed 
in  those  parts  of  the  Eastern  world  where  the  institu- 
tions of  antiquity  have  been  stereotyped.  When  a 
crime  of  unusual  atrocity  occurs  in  one  of  the  cities 
of  China,  not  only  is  the  chief  culprit  put  to  death, 
but  such  stress  is  put  upon  the  system  of  mutual 
guarantees  that  uncles  and  schoolmasters,  who  ought 
to  have  moulded  him  to  better  things,  are  made  to 
share  his  death-sentence  in  some  milder  form  ;  and 
even  the  presiding  mandarins  are  cashiered.  The 
Chinese  recognise  the  other  side  of  this  principle,  for 
in  ennobling  a  hero  or  a  wise  and  faithful  statesman, 
they  confer  posthumous  rank  upon  his  ancestors. 
The  criminal  and  the  hero  alike  respond  to  the 
influences  which  have  been  acting  upon  them.  Men 
imbued  with  such  traditions  laugh  at  our  European 
idea  of  dealing  only  with  the  individual  delinquent, 
and  tell  us  his  kinsmen  ought  to  be  punished  at  his 
side,  whilst  the  city  of  his  birth  is  dismantled.  This 
principle  is  recognised  in  the  sentence  passed  upon 
Achan  and  his  household,  and  other  Old  Testament 
incidents,  as  well  as  in  the  rite  for  the  purification  of 
a  village  from  the  guilt  of  an  undiscovered  murder 
committed  within  its  boundaries.  The  idea  expressed 
in  such  codes  of  punishment  is  not  so  much  that  of 
a  raging  revenge  which  thirsts  to  punish  a  man 
through  his  friends,  as  well  as  in  his  own  body,  but 
an  instinctive  feeling  that  those  nearest  to  a  man 
have  contributed  to  the  formation  of  his  character, 
and  perhaps  encouraged  his  acts  ;  and  that  indeed 
the  whole  atmosphere  and  tradition  of  a  city,  which 


368  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 


has  bred  a  criminal,  must  have  been  pernicious  and 
perverting.  Such  codes  of  punishment  repel  us  not 
so  much  because  they  are  inequitable  in  the  abstract, 
but  because  the  measure  of  one  man's  influence  over 
another  is  too  fine  a  problem  to  be  settled  before  a 
fallible  tribunal.  If  we  could  put  infinite  wisdom 
upon  the  judgment  throne  we  should  feel  that  a 
missing  element  in  the  righteous  treatment  of  trans- 
gression had  been  supplied. 

The  Old  Testament  records  for  us  these  examples 
of  collective  responsibility  and  group-punishment  not 
merely  as  fragments  of  history  full  of  interest,  but  to 
foreshadow  one  of  the  delicate  equities  of  the  final 
judgment  which  no  balances  of  earth  can  test  and 
determine.  These  judicial  methods  of  the  primitive 
days  were  crude  in  form,  and  the  Jew  at  least  asked 
in  the  lot  for  a  Divine  mandate  to  justify  the  act  to 
his  conscience  ;  but  we  must  all  feel  that  something 
is  lacking  in  human  courts.  When  an  ill-paid  clerk, 
a  victim  of  the  bookmaker,  stands  charged  with 
embezzlement  and  receives  six  months'  hard  labour, 
one  feels  that  the  bookmaker  ought  to  have  twelve 
months,  and  the  master  who  has  given  him  less  than 
a  living  wage  and  helped  his  temptation  ought  not 
to  go  quite  free.  When  some  poor  man  has  com- 
mitted forgery  and  receives  five  years'  penal  servitude, 
you  hear  much  pity  expressed  by  those  who  know 
him,  and  the  hint  is  given  that  a  dressy  wife  and 
extravagant  daughters,  who  have  goaded  a  weak  man 
into  a  felony,  and  whose  names  have  not  been  men- 
tioned, get  off  too  lightly.  The  social  set  that  makes 
demands  upon  a  man's  purse  he  cannot  meet  and 
brings  about  his  downfall,  has  an  indirect  share  of 
guilt,  not  less  terrible  because  difficult  to  formulate. 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  369 

The  bad  temper  of  one  member  of  a  family  may- 
infect  the  circle,  and  when  a  husband  is  driven  to  his 
club,  and  growing  sons  to  scenes  of  dissipation,  or 
the  housewife  is  driven  to  soothe  her  nerves  by 
sinister  orders  from  the  licensed  grocers,  it  is  not  just 
to  blame  one  only,  however  difficult  it  may  be  to 
weigh  out  the  amount  of  blame  due  to  each.  This 
principle  of  mutual  responsibility,  although  carried 
out  by  primitive  societies  in  blind  and  brutal  ways, 
contains  a  core  of  impartial  truth  and  reaches  further 
than  any  man  can  trace  it.  It  may  be  that  we  shall 
reassert  it  on  a  wide  scale,  although  the  tribunal 
before  which  it  is  applied  must  always  be  that  of  the 
man's  own  conscience. 

The  glory  of  human  life  is  in  its  influence,  and  if 
there  is  a  moral  law  in  the  universe  and  a  supreme 
Judge  to  enforce  it,  responsibility  must  be  co-exten- 
sive with  influence.  For  every  man  set  in  a  circle  of 
social,  family,  or  civic  relationships,  the  confession, 
"  We  believe  that  thou  shalt  come  to  be  our  Judge," 
means  that  we  shall  be  declared  partakers  in  other 
men's  sins  or  crowned  in  their  salvation  to  a  greater 
extent  than  we  take  trouble  to  perceive  and  under- 
stand. 

Many  facts  remind  us  how  we  may  affect,  more 
profoundly  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
imagine,  not  only  the  interests  of  our  own  immediate 
circle  but  the  fortunes  of  the  world.  We  hold  in  our 
hands  the  lives  of  our  neighbours.  Long  before  the 
scattered  races  of  mankind  were  on  speaking  terms 
with  each  other  the  health  of  one  district  of  the 
world  determined  that  of  another.  Every  kind  of 
disease  acclimatises  itself  most  impartially  upon  all 
four  continents.     Plagues  travelled  then,  as  now,  from 

25 


370  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

Egypt,  along  the  swamps  of  South  Philistia  into 
Palestine,  and  from  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  to 
Western  Asia,  and  through  every  part  of  Europe. 
The  carnage  of  war  bred  epidemics  which  wrought 
havoc  thousands  of  miles  away.  And  in  these  days 
of  international  trade  and  commerce,  the  power  of 
one  part  of  the  world  over  the  destinies  of  another 
seems  to  increase.  The  diseases  of  an  unhallowed 
civilisation  are  carried  to  the  remotest  islands  of  the 
sea.  The  telegrams  posted  in  your  clubs  and  news- 
rooms are  so  many  barometers  on  which  are  marked 
the  influence  of  foreign  events  over  the  finance  of 
the  city,  and  indirectly  upon  the  comfort  and  pros- 
perity of  your  homes.  A  drought  occurs  in  India 
and  the  cotton  operatives  of  Lancashire  are  put  on 
half-time.  Princes  disagree,  a  foreign  newspaper 
foams  in  a  fit  of  distempered  patriotism,  banks  in 
New  York,  Chicago,  Berlin,  Vienna  fail,  and 
securities  become  so  depressed  that  half  your  sub- 
stance melts  away  in  a  few  brief  hours.  Earthquake 
and  fire  in  San  Francisco  and  Valparaiso  cause 
financial  stress  and  insolvency  in  London  and  Glas- 
gow. In  the  course  of  time,  nations,  strange  to  each 
other  at  the  outset,  show  the  idiosyncrasies  of  twins, 
who  take  the  same  ailments  at  the  same  periods  and 
pass  through  the  same  physiological  ups  and  downs. 
One  part  of  a  town  reacts  upon  another,  and  the 
fortunes  of  one  country  are  the  subject  of  vital  con- 
cern to  its  neighbours.  We  are  all  the  poorer  for 
the  destitution  which  lies  a  few  miles  from  our  doors, 
whether  we  are  in  the  same  parish  or  not.  The  West 
End  has  no  effectual  quarantine  against  the  troubles 
of  the  East  End.  The  chances  against  the  health  and 
life  of  our  children  are  increased  by  outbreaks  of  small- 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  371 

pox,  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  typhoid  in  districts 
packed  with  tenement  houses.  Out  of  these  facts 
new  obh'gations  arise,  which,  however  difficult  to 
formulate,  must  one  day  enter  into  the  ultimate  judg- 
ment of  conduct.  And  what  applies  to  natural 
applies  also  to  moral  health. 

Some  years  ago  the  Emperor  of  Germany  had 
arranged  to  meet  the  Tsar  of  Russia  whilst  cruising 
in  the  North  Sea.  At  such  ceremonial  interviews 
it  is  usual  for  monarchs  to  wear  the  uniforms  of 
any  regiment  of  the  neighbouring  country  of  which 
they  are  honorary  officers.  The  Tsar's  valet  forgot 
to  take  his  master's  proper  uniforms,  and  the  inter- 
view had  to  be  delayed  two  or  three  days.  As 
the  interview  did  not  come  off  at  the  appointed 
date,  rumours  of  friction  between  the  two  countries 
arose  and  spread  to  the  Stock  Exchanges  of  the 
leading  European  capitals,  with  the  result  that 
certain  securities  were  depreciated,  and  men  who 
had  speculated  in  them  were  half-ruined.  Such 
a  circumstance  shows  the  responsibility  which  may 
sometimes  attach  to  the  duties  of  a  valet.  Perhaps 
the  blame  of  these  commercial  disasters  should  be 
equally  distributed  between  the  stockbrokers  who 
had  been  betting  on  political  changes,  the  imbecile 
etiquette  of  monarchs  who  could  not  meet  without 
their  uniforms,  and  the  poor,  blundering,  muddle- 
headed  valet.  Such  an  incident  illustrates  the  subtle 
threads  of  interdependence  which  are  woven  into  all 
modern  life. 

This  law  of  interdependence  has  its  moral  applica- 
tions. The  infections  of  vice  and  crime  travel  by 
swifter  and  more  insidious  channels  than  decimating 
epidemics.    The  newspaper  description  of  an  outra;je, 


372  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

robbery,  murder  a  thousand  miles  away,  may  strain 
numbers  of  diseased  imaginations  in  our  midst  to 
explosion-point.  By  a  curious  and  irrepressible 
tendency  to  imitation  in  human  nature,  types  of 
both  good  and  evil  are  reproduced.  In  a  Chinese 
city  where  I  was  once  living,  a  Chinaman  went  and 
hung  himself  on  the  outstretched  arm  of  the  idol  in 
a  public  temple.  No  one  could  explain  the  strange 
and  fantastic  motive  which  led  him  to  choose  that 
particular  form  of  suicide.  Perhaps  he  had  been 
disappointed  of  his  hopes  in  the  idol's  help,  or  he 
wished  to  invoke  its  wrath  against  an  adversary. 
Curious  to  say,  within  two  or  three  days,  a  second 
man  went  and  copied  in  the  same  temple  that 
picturesque  form  of  suicide. 

Every  wrong  act,  sensational  or  otherwise,  breeds 
imitators.  The  police  magistrate  is  reminded  again 
and  again  that  cheap  literature,  which  puts  the 
glamour  of  romance  upon  crime,  sets  up  a  ferment 
in  the  juvenile  brain  and  produces  the  amateur 
pirate  and  highwayman.  A  huge  mass  of  undecided 
people  in  our  midst  wait  for  a  lead,  and  they  may 
be  turned  either  to  the  right  or  the  left  almost  at 
the  will  of  the  operator.  Weak  men  venture  upon 
certain  acts  when  they  think  they  have  found  some 
kind  of  authority  to  rally  their  courage  for  that 
which  they  faintly  wish  to  do.  A  careless  or  a 
worldly  precedent  we  have  set  up,  without  thinking, 
may  be  quoted  by  some  distant  acquaintance,  to 
sanction  the  first  step  he  takes  in  a  career  of  cor- 
ruption and  death.  We  are  all  more  or  less  centres 
of  ethical  telepathy.  It  may  surprise  us  in  the  after- 
days  to  find  that  we  have  been  partakers  of  other 
men's  sins.     It  is  sheer  political  sophistry  to  allow 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  373 

the  doctrine  of  human  liberty  to  be  extended  into 
the  fatal  heresy  that  a  man's  besetting  sin  is  no  one's 
concern  but  his  own.  It  is  the  concern  of  all.  It 
brings  loss  to  every  man  in  the  community.  We 
are  less  delicate  in  our  moral  tastes,  and  our  children 
are  less  securely  guarded  against  the  temptations 
which  may  turn  them  into  heart-breaking  failures, 
because  of  the  public-house  in  the  next  street  with 
its  spawn  of  betting-men  and  blasphemers  upon  the 
doorstep,  the  palace  of  prurient  varieties  half  a  mile 
away,  and  every  unwholesome  book  that  is  intro- 
duced into  our  literature.  We  may  leaven  other 
•nations  with  our  virtues  ;  or,  what  is  far  easier, 
infect  them  with  our  vices  ;  and  they  can  return  the 
compliment.  The  world  is  a  joint-stock  company 
in  which  we  all  have  important  holdings  and 
directing  votes. 

The  exact  distribution  of  the  burdens  of  responsi- 
bility, in  a  family  or  in  a  community,  is  a  delicate 
problem,  the  solution  of  which  in  practical  life 
baffles  us.  The  account  we  render  must  bring  into 
the  reckoning  the  privileges  we  have  enjoyed,  and 
such  fine  adjustments  belong  only  to  the  province 
of  the  Most  High.  In  his  severe  counsel  to  Timothy 
the  apostle  would  doubtless  call  to  mind  the  young 
man's  godly  ancestry,  his  training  in  the  Scriptures, 
his  wholesome  upbringing,  besides  the  charge  com- 
mitted to  him  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  Politic 
acts,  to  be  passed  over  with  a  milder  censure  in  one 
less  privileged  and  instructed,  might  involve  a  par- 
ticipation in  other  men's  sins. 

The  distribution  of  responsibility  between  two  or 
more  persons,  whose  conduct  is  influenced  by  a 
reciprocal  relationship,  varies  from  day  to  day.      A 


374  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

judgment  at  one  stage  of  the  history  may  need  to 
be  revised  in  part  at  a  later  stage,  because  the 
centres  to  which  praise  or  blame  may  gravitate 
shift  and  diverge.  It  may  need  infinite  knowledge 
to  apportion  all  the  ingredients  in  an  act  of  com- 
posite evil  and  discriminate  in  condemnation 
between  the  leader  and  the  accessory.  It  is  said 
that  some  crimes  have  been  a  result  of  hypnotic 
suggestion.  If  such  things  have  occurred  the 
operator  is  under  the  ban  of  a  hotter  condemnation 
than  the  subject  who  has  been  put  into  a  state  of 
semi-consciousness  and  made  subservient  to  his 
wiles.  Without  trespassing  upon  the  half-explored 
ground  of  morbid  occultism,  we  are  all  familiar 
with  events  in  which  one  man  has  been  so  artful 
in  his  sophistry,  so  plausible  in  his  arguments,  so 
dogged  and  pertinacious  in  his  domination,  that 
he  may  really  be  guiltier  than  the  weak-minded 
tools  who  have  followed  him  and  accepted  the  active 
parts  he  assigned. 

There  is  a  stage  in  the  development  of  the  child 
when  the  parent  is  more  responsible  for  the  acts  of 
the  child  than  the  child  himself  But  when  the 
child  has  matured  into  reason,  knowledge,  and 
self-control,  the  centre  of  preponderant  responsi- 
bility has  transferred  itself  to  the  personality  of 
the  child,  although  in  the  sight  of  God  the  parent's 
responsibility  for  early  influence  and  direction  never 
entirely  ceases. 

There  is  a  time  when  the  man  who  becomes  a 
drunkard  is  entirely  blameworthy  for  his  own 
downfall  and  for  every  separate  act  of  intemperance 
which  led  him  to  the  precipice.  But  when  the  will 
has     been    weakened,     the    power     of    self-control 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  375 

destroyed,  every  fibre  of  the  moral  life  rotted,  and 
the  poor  wretch  feels  he  would  stake  his  soul  for 
a  drink,  the  friend  who  sits  at  the  same  table,  the 
publican  who  plies  him  with  the  temptation,  and 
the  politicians  and  magistrates  behind  the  publican, 
are  more  flagrant  delinquents  than  he.  The  burden 
of  guilt  has  travelled  unseen  to  other  shoulders, 
and  the  man  who  caters  for  his  weaknesses  is  the 
leader,  whilst  the  victim  himself  is  a  poor,  servile 
accessory. 

When  an  enlightened  Christian  nation  plies  non- 
Christian  races  with  gin,  poppy,  or  hemp-drugs, 
although  it  may  be  pleaded  black  man,  brown 
man,  yellow  man  is  free  to  resist  the  seductive 
luxury,  yet  surely  the  more  enlightened  race  is 
covered  with  a  foul  guilt  and  a  deadly  shame 
from  which  the  others  are  comparatively  free. 

Is  not  this  principle  of  collective  responsibility 
reflected  in  the  words  of  the  Great  Teacher  Himself? 
At  the  Last  Supper  Jesus  said  to  the  Twelve,  who 
were  reclining  around  Him,  "  One  of  you  shall  betray 
Me."  Was  it  not  harsh,  undiscriminating,  inconsonant 
with  the  ideal  equity  He  always  preached,  to  put  the 
reproach  of  this  evil  deed  upon  the  corporate  dis- 
cipleship,  without  specifying  the  particular  offender  ? 
Had  the  honour  of  the  others  no  claim  to  be  vindi- 
cated, and  that  at  once  ?  The  words  seem  more  open 
to  criticism  than  the  denunciations  hurled  against 
the  scribes  in  the  Temple  courts  a  few  days  before. 
Such  a  speech  almost  savours  of  the  Eastern  method 
of  incriminating  the  innocent  till  they  have  cleared 
themselves  by  a  dread  ordeal,  or  punishing  an  entire 
community  for  the  misdemeanour  of  one.  In  the 
distressful   words,  which   left  Judas  for  the  moment 


376  INTERWOVEN   RESPONSIBILITIES 

unnamed,  and  treated  his  crime  as  though  it  threw  a 
shadow  of  reproach  over  the  Twelve,  Jesus  was  sug- 
gesting those  finer  fibres  of  ramifying  influence  which 
so   often    escape   our  blunted  vision,  but  which  are 
none  the  less  sure  and  certain  tracks  along  which  the 
solemn  law  of  reciprocal  responsibility  works   itself 
out.     For  many  months  past  they  had  been  helping 
to   make   the   psychic  atmosphere  which  stimulated 
into  such  repulsive  growths  the  poison-germs  in  the 
veins   of    Iscariot.      James    and    John,    Peter    and 
Thomas  had  been  disappointed  in  Jesus,  as  was  the 
betrayer,  although   they  stopped   short  at  treachery. 
But  they  kept  step  with  Iscariot  to  the  border-line  and 
travelled  in  His  company.    When  Jesus  referred  to  His 
appointed  sufferings,  they  had  always  been  against 
Him    and  on    the    side    of    those  political  illusions, 
into  which  the  exaggerated  patriotism  of  the  Jew  had 
turned  the  Messianic  hope.     They  also  were  sullen 
and  mortified  at  the  idea  of  having  to  follow  their 
Master  into  scenes  of  shame.     Had  they  been  less 
worldly,   Judas    might   have  felt   compelled  to   part 
company  with  the  Twelve  at  an  earlier  stage.     He 
did  not  find  them  altogether  incompatible.     By  the 
hospitality  they  showed  to  his  worldly  schemes,  he 
may  have  been  held  in  the  bonds  of  a  formal  dis- 
cipleship,  which  in  due  time  made  treachery  possible. 
Up  to  the  point  at  which  sin  formulated  itself  into  a 
crime,  they  were  at  one  with  him.     Of  course  they 
were   incapable   of  deceit,    malicious    intrigue,   final 
desertion  ;  but  they  lacked  fidelity  to  purely  spiritual 
ideals,  and  the  crime  of  one  became  the  reproach  of 
all.      A    member   of  the    Church    rarely    falls    into 
scandalous   sin    without   others    being   also  in  some 
undefined    way    accessories    to    his   lapse.     Courage, 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  377 

self-denial,  resolute  character,  tearful  solicitude,  un- 
sleeping watchfulness  over  ourselves  are  needful,  if 
we  are  to  be  without  blame  before  Jesus  the  Judge. 

This  admonition  to  Timothy  shows  the  severity  with 
which  Paul  interpreted  the  law  of  mutual  responsi- 
bility. The  godly  young  man,  left  behind  to  watch 
over  the  Church  at  Ephesus,  was  not  likely  to  identify 
himself  in  any  way  with  flagrant  and  prevalent  forms 
of  sin.  It  is  inconceivable  that  he  would  have  joined 
in  festivities  likely  to  beget  in  some  of  the  weaker 
creatures  taking  part  in  them  habits  of  intemperance, 
sensuality,  gambling.  He  was  incapable  of  support- 
ing a  faction  in  the  city  set  upon  aggrandising  tavern- 
keepers  and  honouring  men  enriched  through  the 
corruption  of  their  neighbours.  With  such  a  training, 
he  would  be  in  no  danger  of  buying  favour  for  the 
helpless  little  groups  of  believers,  by  paying  court  to 
dissolute  aristocrats  and  accepting  the  patronage  of 
evil-doers  in  high  places,  in  the  tone  of  Archbishop 
Laud,  who  often  records  his  gratitude  to  Almighty 
God  for  the  friendship  of  George  Villiers.  He  had 
the  kind  of  conscience  which  would  have  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  serve  for  five  years  as  domestic 
chaplain  to  a  nobleman  living  in  open  adultery,  as 
did  the  famous  ecclesiastic  of  the  Stuart  days,  whom 
certain  Anglicans  still  delight  to  honour.  The 
danger  of  which  Paul  bids  him  take  heed  is  that  of 
restoring  insincere  penitents  to  Church  fellowship,  or 
admitting  unworthy  men  to  office.  By  a  worldly-wise 
selection  of  men  to  bear  rule  in  the  household  of 
God,  by  politic  blindness,  by  ignoble  silence  in 
presence  of  grave  moral  inconsistencies,  by  popular- 
ising the  gospel  and  relaxing  its  requirements,  he 
might    lend  the  sanction  of  his    position  to  wrong- 


378  INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES 

doing  and  lower  the  standard  of  Church  life  for 
generations.  A  body  of  disciples  can  suffer  no  per- 
manent discredit  through  patience  with  weakness  and 
infirmity,  for  they  are  bound  to  copy  the  Master,  who 
fostered  the  faintest  beginnings  of  goodness.  But 
when  a  Christian  community  connives  at  continuous, 
deliberate  sin  in  any  of  its  members,  it  becomes  an 
ally  of  the  Evil  One  and  forfeits  all  right  to  bear 
Christ's  name.  In  this  indulgent,  happy-go-lucky  age, 
when  Christian  denominations  sometimes  compete 
in  a  commercial  temper  for  public  support,  men  are 
tempted  to  set  up  the  ideal  of  a  Church  without 
discipline.  Let  men  judge  for  themselves  whether 
they  are  fit  for  the  sacrament,  and  do  not  impose 
tests.  Such  pleas  are  suicidal.  The  members  of  the 
Church  share  a  common  life  and  are  bound  to  look  to 
the  health  of  a  body,  of  which  they  are  constituent 
parts.  Mortifying  limbs  do  not  drop  off  by  them- 
selves and  leave  the  Church  to  renew  its  life, 
unharmed  by  the  painless  loss. 

Many  of  us  would  like  the  law  of  influence  and 
mutual  sponsorship  to  work  in  one  way  only.  We 
want  the  prospect  of  unlimited  recompense,  without 
being  exposed  to  any  risk  of  shame  and  loss  on 
account  of  others.  The  moral  government  of  the 
world  should  surely  run  on  parallel  lines  to  the 
method  of  the  stockbroker,  who  advertises  handsome 
profits  without  any  risk  of  loss.  We  ought  to  have 
the  opportunity  of  furthering  the  well-being  of  our 
contemporaries,  and  so  participating  in  their  final 
reward,  without  incurring  the  penalties  threatened 
against  those  who  abet  the  downward  steps  of  their 
fellows.  We  should  be  left  free  upon  an  unlimited 
scale  to  do  good  and  earn   Divine  plaudits    by    the 


INTERWOVEN    RESPONSIBILITIES  370 

service  of  our  brethren,  but  should  be  so  tethered 
by  restrictions,  founded  in  the  nature  of  things,  that 
we  cannot  be  held  blameworthy  for  the  mischiefs  of 
our  day  and  generation.  The  possibilities  of  honour 
and  immortal  renown  should  be  made  as  large  as 
the  possibilities  of  service  in  the  world,  but  there 
should  be  no  risk  of  privation  in  the  final  judgment, 
on  account  of  some  evil  turn  we  may  have  given, 
by  word  or  example,  to  a  neighbour's  conduct. 
The  idea  vaguely  cherished  by  some  of  us  is  a  con- 
tradiction of  terms.  A  one-sided  theory  of  responsi- 
bility is  like  the  specification  for  a  sphere  with  only 
one  pole.  It  is  the  cry  of  a  half-witted  school  boy 
for  a  world  in  which  he  can  climb  trees,  without  the 
risk  of  a  fall.  If  responsibility  does  exist  at  all,  and 
goes  beyond  the  mere  actions  which  concern  a  man's 
own  body,  it  must  hold  for  evil  as  well  as  for  good. 
If  you  stimulate  the  virtues  of  your  friends  and  find 
the  glory  of  their  salvation  reflected  back  into  your 
own  coming  life,  you  may  at  the  same  time  accelerate 
their  deterioration  and  in  some  degree  share  the  pain 
and  shame  of  their  doom.  If  Paul  may  receive 
eternal  satisfactions  through  the  fidelity  and  gracious 
endurance  of  his  converts,  Timothy  may  also  be 
abased  and  humiliated  in  the  day  of  God  through 
conniving  at  the  defects  of  those  whom  he  brings 
into  ill-judged  association  with  the  Church.  The 
crown  of  joy  and  honour  accorded  for  help  rendered 
to  men's  moral  and  spiritual  uplifting,  implies  also 
the  risk  of  the  millstone  about  the  neck  and  a 
descent  into  abysses  of  darkness,  if  we  cause  a 
little  one  to  be  offended. 


XIX 

THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

"  I  have  seen  an  end  of  all  perfection  ;  but  thy  command- 
ment is  exceeding  broad." — Psa.  cxix.  96. 

This  longest  of  the  Psalms  was  written  by  a  victim 
of  persecution  who  had  been  much  vexed  by  injustice 
and  disappointed  hope.  The  laboured  and  redundant 
treatment  of  his  theme,  it  has  been  suggested,  perhaps 
arises  from  the  fact  that  it  was  one  of  the  pastimes  of 
his  captivity  in  a  foreign  land  to  put  his  thoughts 
into  the  framework  of  an  acrostic.  Like  the  writer 
of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  he  was  sick  at  heart,  but 
sick  through  the  soul-bruising  frustrations  which  had 
come  to  him  in  a  noble  struggle  rather  than  through 
the  repletions  of  prosperity  and  the  lavish  voluptuous- 
ness of  an  unbridled  life.  He  had  cherished  high 
anticipations — anticipations,  perhaps,  of  the  better 
times  to  be  inaugurated  by  a  return  from  the 
captivity  in  which  he  pined  and  by  re-established 
temple  rites.  His  sanguine  forecasts  had  not  yet 
been  justified.  He  had  seen  an  end  of  all  perfection 
in  the  polities  and  institutions  to  which  he  had 
looked.     And    yet   moral   obligations   did   not  cease 


THE    ENDLESS   ETHIC  381 

with  the  dispersion  of  his  dreams.  Divine  law  was 
in  no  sense  discredited,  for  its  scope  was  still  enlarg- 
ing before  his  view,  and  its  sanctions  continued  to 
gather  fresh  force  and  solemnity  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  his  lot.  Perhaps  the  set  of  his  thought 
anticipates  the  religious  development  of  the  approach- 
ing generations  of  his  race,  which  made  the  law  itself 
the  centre  of  the  elect  life  rather  than  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem.  He  had  come  abreast  of  those  earthly 
horizons  to  which  he  had  looked  with  wistfulness, 
and  found  little  or  nothing  within  their  range  that 
was  adequate,  contenting,  indisputably  Divine.  He 
was  now  fixing  his  view  upon  more  spiritual  hori- 
zons, for  God's  commandment  seemed  significant  of 
interests  stretching  beyond  the  scenes  explored  by 
the  senses  and  measured  by  the  span  of  human  life. 
The  fabric  of  early  dreams  had  collapsed,  but  an 
outlook  of  infinite  moral  progress  was  unveiling  itself 
Growth  in  the  obligations  of  righteousness  gave  no 
sign  of  finality. 

Perhaps  the  disillusion  which  depressed  the 
Psalmist,  and  for  which  he  had  found  an  antidote 
in  the  permanence  and  magnitude  of  the  Divine 
law,  was  not  limited  to  the  religious  aspect  of  life 
only.  By  his  own  simple  pathway  he  had  reached 
the  conclusion,  familiar  to  modern  thinkers,  that  the 
present  world  is  not  of  unimpeachable  perfection,  but 
a  chaos  of  knotted  problems,  amazing  anomalies 
clashing  interests,  contending  principles.  He  set 
out  with  other  views,  but  the  world  has  tended 
to  deteriorate  at  each  stage  through  which  he  has 
passed  and  at  length  he  finds  himself  more  or  less 
broken  in  spirit.  The  dreams  of  youth  give  place  to 
the  scanty,  ill-favoured  fulfilments  of  manhood,  and 


382  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

before  a  worthy  fruitage  of  his  hopes  is  in  view  signs 
of  the  end  appear.  But  he  reminds  himself  moral 
processes  go  on  working  themselves  out  upon  a  scale 
of  immeasurable  greatness,  when  the  secular  move- 
ments which  once  promised  amelioration  are 
threatened  with  arrest  and  defeat.  God's  inward 
law,  larger  than  the  designs  appearing  in  the  history 
of  contemporary  nations,  makes  the  centre  round 
which  his  baffled  and  faltering  faith  rallies.  It  is  a 
poor,  stunted,  parochial  code  of  precepts  which  is 
inherent  in  the  system  of  nature  and  reflects  itself  in 
the  expediencies  of  human  society  ;  but  within  there 
is  a  secret,  mystic,  expansive  law  which  is  ever 
thrusting  the  soul  forward  to  nobler  things.  Spiritual 
ends  are  continued  in  that  larger  kingdom  of  the 
unseen,  which  rounds  in  those  fugitive  and  visible 
kingdoms  of  earth,  where  natural  forces  soon  reach 
their  term  and  encounter  a  final  arrest.  God's  change- 
less and  ever-enlarging  law  of  right,  a  spring  of  new 
optimisms  in  the  thwarted  reformer,  and  an  earnest 
of  fresh  possibilities  in  the  life  it  is  set  to  regulate, 
satisfies  that  sense  of  moral  greatness  which  the 
course  of  secular  events  so  often  seems  to  mock. 

In  these  words  may  we  not  see  a  soul  from  whose 
religion  the  note  of  a  harsh  provincialism  is  begin- 
ning to  pass  away?  The  Psalmist  is  perhaps  being 
broadened  by  the  discovery  that  the  Divine  com- 
mandment has  mysteriously  promulgated  itself  in 
the  unsuspected  places  of  the  earth.  In  spite  of  the 
ill-usage  to  which  he  had  been  exposed  in  a  strange 
land,  he  has  acquired  cosmopolitan  sympathies  and 
been  brought  to  see  that  in  the  reverence  of  other 
races  besides  his  own  a  sacred  law,  akin  to  that  given 
by  Moses,  had  firmly  established  itself     Some  of  his 


THE    ENDLESS    ETHIC  383 

fellow-captives  had  discovered  that  these  ruthless  con- 
querors were  not  one  and  all  bad,  but  now  and  again 
showed  a  better  and  more  kindly  side.  The  virtues 
of  humanity  asserted  themselves  outside  the  limits 
of  the  chosen  race.  The  moral  law,  he  was  finding 
out,  was  not  a  mere  string  of  recipes,  for  a  small 
theocracy.  Perhaps  the  Psalmist  had  learned  in 
exile  of  ancient  codes  like  that  of  Amurabi,  which 
corresponds  at  so  many  points  with  the  legislation 
of  Moses,  and  prov^es  the  close  ethical  affinities  of 
the  Semitic,  and  perhaps  also  of  the  Turanian  races. 
God  had  long  been  binding  upon  neighbouring 
nations  the  obligations  of  virtue  and  righteousness, 
although  they  had  never  gathered  before  Sinai  to 
listen  to  His  voice.  The  commandment  was  broader 
than  the  little  race  which  had  hitherto  esteemed  itself 
the  solitary  guardian  of  its  sanctities.  And  herein, 
perhaps,  the  Psalmist  may  have  seen  a  forecast  of 
the  future  uplifting  of  the  Gentiles.  He  was  learning 
that  the  realm  through  which  God's  law  ran  was 
larger  than  the  land  which  had  been  divided  amongst 
twelve  tribes.  The  theocratic  state  of  his  early 
dreams  was  built  on  narrow  and  insufficient  founda- 
tions. He  had  cherished  the  picture  of  a  single  race 
devoted  to  God  and  possessing  a  monopoly  of  His 
favour  ;  but  recent  history  had  belied  the  imagina- 
tion. And  yet  the  commandment  was  Divine — 
Diviner  perhaps  than  he  had  thought  in  the  past 
— because  it  was  broad  as  mankind.  Authoritative 
precepts  from  on  high  had  gone  forth  into  unsus- 
pected places  to  sanctify  those  whom  he  had  reckoned 
outcast.  Through  this  growing  law  the  assembled 
nations  might  yet  realise  a  degree  of  moral  elevation 
not  heretofore  reached  in  the  chequered  history  of  the 


384  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

Jew.  Just  as  the  fan  of  light  from  the  cloud-rift 
which  gilds  a  tree  or  a  farmstead  widens  into  a  flood 
of  glory  overspreading  the  land,  so  the  command- 
ment, which  had  once  seemed  to  touch  one  angle  of 
humanity  only,  gave  signs  of  broadening  itself  out 
so  as,  in  due  time,  to  transfigure  the  world.  It  had 
already  gone  forth  to  bind,  discipline,  and  mollify 
the  asperities  of  men  of  a  strange  speech.  Forces, 
large  as  the  human  soul,  and  co-extensive  with  the 
presence  of  man  upon  the  earth,  were  concentrated 
in  this  sacred  and  authoritative  ethic.  At  the  root 
of  the  exceeding  broad  commandment  the  promise 
of  a  new  perfection  waited,  which  was  to  replace 
that  which  had  passed  away. 

In  these  words  the  Psalmist  expresses  the  sense 
he  has  of  the  ever-enlarging  province  of  the  law  in 
the  regulation  of  his  own  personal  life.  In  spite  of 
the  changed  views  forced  upon  him,  he  sees  in  the 
law  an  instrument  for  furthering  his  own  moral 
growth  under  new  conditions.  With  that  finer  and 
more  complex  power  of  interpretation,  which  comes 
from  an  expanding  intellectual  outlook,  the  calls  of 
duty  must  obviously  multiply.  There  has  always 
been  a  tendency  to  look  upon  the  decalogue  as 
concerning  itself  with  specific  groups  of  action,  which 
do  not  cover  the  entire  groundwork  of  life.  Certain 
offences  are  inhibited  to  which  human  nature  is 
prone,  and  finality  is  ascribed  to  the  classification. 
But  as  men  begin  to  know  themselves  and  to 
comprehend  the  social  systems  to  which  they  belong, 
and  especially  as  they  rise  into  more  adequate  views 
of  God's  character,  they  are  led  to  see  that  the  Ten 
Commandments  are  types  to  be  amplified  into  parallel 
applications   and    not   exhaustive   categories.     Even 


THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC  385 

in  primitive  times  the  law  had  to  be  epitomised  into 
two   pregnant   principles  of  love  towards   God    and 
man   to  facilitate  its  application    to  a   wider    series 
of  questions.       It   was    inevitable   that    undisclosed 
dimensions  of  the  law  should  loom  into  view,  when 
the  moral  training  of  the  individual,  with  his  many- 
sided   temperament   and    his    diverse    environments, 
had    to   be    faced.      At   the    opening    of  each    new 
chapter  in  the  religious  history  obligation  expands. 
In   elementary   stages   of  culture   obligations    were 
necessarily  more  restricted  and  engrossed  with  fewer 
problems.     The  tasks  of  a  child  multiply  with  years, 
and,  as  he  grows  in  wisdom  and  knowledge  towards 
full    maturity,    the    scope    of    his    duties    must    be 
measured    in    larger   terms.     With  every  new  land- 
mark passed  in  the  providential  training,  the  dominion 
of  duty  over  the  conscience  extends  itself,  and  the 
simple  commandments  of  the  Most  High   begin  to 
apply  themselves   to  subtle   and    difficult   questions 
of  conduct.     The  Jew  had  been  accustomed  to  look 
upon  the  first  half  of  the  law  as  relevant  chiefly  to  the 
temple  and  its  ordinances.     But  when   the  Psalmist 
found  himself  in  a  strange  land,  bereft  of  the  symbols 
and   institutions   with   which  his   worship  had   been 
identified  from  the  days  of  his  forefathers,  he  began 
to  feel   that  these  primary  commandments  must  be 
satisfied  by  new  methods.     He  could  not  find  access 
to  the  Temple,   and  it  was   in  some  more  spiritual 
sense  that  he  must  obey  them.     And  thus  he  got  at 
the  finer  essence  of  the  law,  and  in  Jewish  colonies 
wherever  planted  there  sprang  up  a  worship  without 
altar  or  sacrifice.     The  commandment  covered  fields 
of  spiritual  activity,  of  which  he  had  been  scarcely 
aware    in    the    past,    and    thus    one    of   its    hidden 

26 


386  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

dimensions  was  brought  into  view.  And  the  second 
half  of  the  law  had  to  be  obeyed  in  the  same  larger 
sense,  and  included  an  inward  spirit  as  well  as 
outward  acts. 

The  doctrine  of  a  progressive  revelation  is  implied 
in  the  Psalmist's  words — a  doctrine  peculiarly  perti- 
nent to  present-day  problems  of  faith  and  the  key 
to  difficulties  which  the  intelligent  believer  is  bound 
sooner  or  later  to  face.  Some  good  people  resent  the 
idea  that  any  subsequent  enlargement  of  a  Divine 
revelation  can  take  place.  It  is  assumed,  to  begin 
with,  that  a  Divine  revelation  must  be  complete 
and  exhaustive,  immune  in  its  very  nature  from 
every  element  of  infirmity  and  limitation.  In  the 
abstract  such  an  assumption  is  sound  and  just,  if  no 
account  be  taken  of  the  human  instrument.  On  the 
other  hand  a  revelation,  coming  through  a  holy 
prophet  or  lawgiver,  cannot  greatly  transcend  his 
power  of  spiritual  vision ;  and  that  power  must 
necessarily  be  circumscribed  by  the  age  in  which 
he  lives,  the  training  he  has  received,  and  his  in- 
heritance by  natural  descent.  The  light  that  enters 
a  house  is  determined  not  by  the  mighty  volume 
which  comes  from  the  sun,  but  by  the  size  and 
number  of  the  windows  in  the  house,  and  with  any 
increase  in  the  size  and  number  of  the  windows  the 
scope  of  the  household  duties  broadens,  for  a  higher 
standard  of  taste  and  cleanliness  becomes  possible. 
An  explorer  huddled  up  in  his  hut  through  the  long 
darkness  of  an  Arctic  winter  cannot  be  expected 
to  maintain  the  same  standard  of  taste  and  domestic 
refinement  as  dwellers  in  a  house  into  which  the 
sunlight  can  come  in  tides.  The  illumination  of  a 
landscape  is  determined  by  the   reflecting    surfaces 


THE    KNDLESS   ETHIC  387 


it  presents,  and  not  by  the  resources  of  the  gigantic 
orb  from  which  the  illumination  flows.  There  are 
sound-waves  beyond  the  compass  of  the  human  ear 
as  well  as  light-waves  beyond  the  visible  spectrum. 
The  moral  revelation  has  outlying  margins  which 
at  first  escape  our  notice.  God  was  compelled  to 
proclaim  those  parts  of  the  commandment  which 
human  nature,  on  its  best  and  most  developed  side, 
could  easily  receive.  It  was  necessary  that  a  series 
of  economies  should  succeed  each  other,  the  last 
enlarging  that  by  which  it  was  preceded.  Divine 
dispensations  are  progressive,  and  no  weary  circles 
of  tautological  pragmatisms ;  and  this  is  the  sign 
that  the  forces  working  within  religious  history  have 
their  birth  in  the  infinite.  God  could  not  deal  other- 
wise with  growing  children. 

The  dependence  of  the  conscience  upon  the  intel- 
lectual faculties,  through  which  it  operates  in  practical 
life,  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  fact  that  a  primitive 
revelation,  however  pure,  cannot  possibly  be  ex- 
haustive. Every  enlargement  of  man's  knowledge 
and  power  to  judge  incites  that  moral  sense,  which 
vibrates  in  unison  with  the  Divine  law,  to  widen  the 
field  of  its  functions.  New  spheres  of  duty  must  there- 
fore open  themselves  up,  like  unfolding  continents, 
with  each  advancing  stage  of  education  and  develop- 
ment. The  whole  duty  of  man  did  not  press  itself  upon 
the  forefathers  of  the  race,  as  they  looked  across  the 
frontiers  of  their  garden-home  into  the  unexplored 
spaces  of  the  earth.  With  the  lifting  of  the  veil  from 
the  surroundings  in  which  a  human  being  is  cradled, 
the  commandment  stretches  itself  out  to  cover  more 
complex  issues.  Its  range  of  accommodation  is  un- 
limited.    Conscience  cannot  do  the  full  measure  of 


388  THE    ENDLESS   ETHIC 

its  appointed  work  without  enlisting  in  its  service 
the  senses,  the  reason,  and  the  judgment  ;  and  till 
these  faculties  are  duly  trained  the  Divine  voice,  in 
the  central  essence  of  the  man,  must  speak  through 
imprisoning  crudities  and  limitations.  The  ethical 
truth  produced  within  the  conscience  is  like  the 
seed  of  a  new  flora  which  is  dependent  for  its  dis- 
tribution through  many  zones  upon  winds,  currents, 
and  tides.  The  intellectual  movements  of  the  race 
are  tracks  and  highways,  along  which  man's  moral 
potentialities  pass  into  wider  spheres  of  activity  and 
fruitfulness.  The  conscience  may  be  compared  to  a 
piece  of  fine  and  accurately  adjusted  machinery  which 
has  been  put  down  amongst  uncivilised  people.  The 
perfect  machinery  cannot  do  its  work,  and  send  forth 
its  fabrics  through  the  areas  of  a  new  territory,  till 
trained  hands  have  been  taught  to  use  its  capacities 
and  co-operate  with  its  actions.  Our  moral  dis- 
criminations can  only  make  their  force  and  their 
correctness  adequately  felt  with  the  widest  training 
of  the  intellectual  life.  The  tasks  of  the  conscience 
in  defining,  expounding,  and  driving  home  the  pre- 
cepts of  social  and  religious  law  are  limited  by  the 
line  up  to  which  knowledge  has  been  attained  and 
the  judgment  cultivated,  and  not  by  any  frailty 
inherent  in  this  Divine  faculty  itself  In  rude 
stages  of  mental  development  men  cannot  apply 
the  moral  maxims  authenticated  by  the  conscience 
to  subtle  and  complicated  problems  nor  harmonise 
into  unison  contending  issues.  Commerce,  educa- 
tion, literature,  social  intercourse  amplify  the  sense 
we  have  of  God's  claim  upon  conduct  and  invalidate 
the  restricted  definitions  of  the  past.  If  this  is  so, 
is  it  not  clear  that  the  Divine  commandment  must 


THE    ENDLESS   ETHIC  3^9 


annex  for  itself  new  spheres  of  application  with  the 
widening  faculties  of  mankind  ?  A  lap-dog  may  be 
as  docile  as  a  shepherd's  collie,  but  the  collie,  in 
virtue  of  its  trained  intelligence,  responds  to  calls 
the  dog  of  the  hearthrug  passes  by. 

The  Bible  narratives,  covering  as  they  do  long 
epochs  of  religious  development,  afford  striking 
illustrations  of  this  principle.  The  first  test  of 
obedience,  imposed  upon  the  ancestors  of  the  race 
as  they  crossed  the  threshold  into  a  ne.v  life  of 
reason  and  moral  responsibility,  was  simple  to  the 
point  of  childishness.  When  their  conscious  rela- 
tions with  the  Creator  began,  loyalty  was  to  be 
shown  by  abstention  from  a  fruit  alluring  to  the 
senses ;  and  this  in  face  of  whatever  temptation 
might  arise  to  take  and  eat.  According  to  the 
teaching  of  the  sacred  allegory  the  mandate  was 
simple,  positive  in  accent,  suited  to  the  unsophisti- 
cated understanding.  It  was  such  a  first  lesson  as 
might  be  used  in  training  an  animal  to  obedience. 
Though  possessed  of  instinctive  virtues,  and  wholly 
innocent  so  far  as  the  life  they  enjoyed  had  unfolded 
itself,  the  parents  of  the  race  were  yet  in  their 
intellectual  infancy,  with  no  complex  capacities, 
enabling  them  to  appreciate  the  many  aspects  of 
obligation  upfolded  within  the  perfect  law  of  God. 
After  the  lapse  of  centuries  the  law  broadened 
itself  out  into  those  first  principles  of  natural 
justice,  which  were  set  forth  in  the  Covenant  with 
Noah.  The  ethic  of  the  dawn  was  further  amplified 
by  Moses  and  by  those  who  collected  and  codified 
the  traditions  of  his  work,  spiritualised  by  successive 
schools  of  prophets,  and  at  last  changed  from  a  veto 
upon  profane  and  vicious  acts  into  a  high  injunction 


390  THE    ENDLESS   ETHIC 

of  whatever  presented  itself  to  the  affections  as  lovely 
and  of  good  report.  Like  a  river  which  pours  forth 
its  shining  tides  upon  the  right  hand  and  the  left 
before  merging  itself  in  the  sea,  the  Divine  law 
spread  its  sanctions  over  wider  and  yet  wider 
fields.  The  zeal  for  Jehovah,  which  had  been  en- 
kindled within  the  tribes,  impelled  them  into  wars 
of  extermination  against  the  Canaanites,  and  no 
doubt  the  chosen  people  were  conscious  instru- 
ments of  Divine  justice.  They  obeyed  a  principle, 
but  a  principle  found  after  due  time  to  be  radically 
associated  with  other  principles,  which  tended  to 
modify  its  form  of  expression.  The  law  of 
humanity  implicit  in  the  earlier  sense  of  duty, 
at  length  gained  utterance  by  the  lips  of  the 
prophet  who  commanded  the  King  of  Israel  to 
set  bread  and  meat  before  the  invading  Syrians, 
so  strangely  put  within  his  power.  After  the  Cap- 
tivity there  arose  a  new  sense  of  obligation  to  the 
world,  which  struggled  with  a  bitter  nationalism,  but 
at  last  found  its  grandest  expression  in  the  parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan — a  parable  which  makes  the 
law  of  mutual  love  and  service  wide  as  the  world. 
It  is  true  that  side  by  side  with  this  expanding 
process  a  counterfeit  enlargement  was  in  progress, 
for  rites  and  ceremonies  were  elaborated  into  harsh 
and  tormenting  complexities.  But  the  prophets 
were  ever  reminding  the  people  and  their  rulers 
that  Divine  law  must  not  be  formalised  into 
exacting  routines  alien  to  the  Divine  character 
itself 

When  the  Spirit  of  God  comes  to  dwell  within 
men,  fulfilling  the  word  of  the  prophets.  He  enlarges 
the  bounds  of  duty.       His  personal  instruction  and 


TH?:    ENDLESS    ETHIC  391 

leading  would  be  needless,  if  every  phase  of  obliga- 
tion had  become  articulate  in  the  common  law  of 
the  nation.  By  fine  and  diversified  adjustments  to 
privilege,  capacity,  and  vocation  He  specialises  the 
moral  claims  resting  upon  men.  In  early  ages  the 
Divine  Spirit,  acting  according  to  the  traditions  of 
existing  societies,  selected  duly  accredited  leaders 
to  be  the  heralds  and  interpreters  of  law  to  the 
multitude.  In  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of 
the  Most  High,  these  chosen  messengers  promul- 
gated a  common  code  of  behaviour,  suited  to  the 
strength  and  average  intelligence  of  the  people. 
Under  special  guidance,  and  marked  out  for  their 
work  by  many  signs,  they  found  a  mean  term  of 
obligation,  and  announced  it  with  solemnity  and 
faithfulness.  But  in  the  last  times  God  Himself, 
without  the  intervention  of  seers,  prophets,  and 
lawmakers,  was  to  speak  in  diverse  and  manifold 
spiritual  ways  to  the  entire  community,  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  promise  of  the  better  Covenant,  men  of 
all  classes  found  precepts  from  on  high  strangely 
written  within  their  hearts.  And  the  law  thus 
conveyed  was  no  servile  transcript  of  the  tables 
of  stone,  but  an  enlargement  into  perfect  fulness. 
If  no  distinctive  personal  element  was  to  be  brought 
into  the  new  disclosures  of  duty,  there  was  no 
reason  why  God  should  not  still  continue  to  make 
known  His  will  through  representative  men.  "  All 
my  people  shall  be  taught  of  God."  Yes,  but  if 
the  law  had  already  proved  itself  an  exhaustive 
message  there  would  have  been  little  or  nothing 
left  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  new  method.  In  the 
dispensation  under  which  we  are  all  directly  taught 
by   the    Spirit    and    brought    under   law,    men's    in- 


392  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

dividual  privileges,  capacities,  and  aptitudes  are 
measured  and  the  commandment  enunciated  upon 
this  new  basis  ramifies  into  finer  forms.  It  acquires 
a  power  of  enforcing  itself  in  new  directions.  Adam 
and  Eve  were  mere  babes  in  the  wood,  and  though 
surpassing  us  in  their  fair  and  stainless  innocence, 
we  at  least  are  more  subtle  and  discerning,  and 
capable  of  complexities  of  spiritual  obedience  which 
scarcely  entered  into  their  dreams.  The  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  bring  precepts  which  enlarge  the  earlier 
codes. 

The  law  of  a  theocracy,  laying  stress  as  it  does 
upon  the  collective  obligations  of  the  nation,  must 
necessarily  leave  some  phases  of  individual  duty 
implied  rather  than  expressed.  An  inspired  Statute 
Book  records  a  minimum  demand  which  is  made 
upon  the  elect  community,  and  in  the  cases,  where 
personal  duty  goes  beyond  this  minimum  demand,  a 
special  ministry  of  interpretation  must  be  established. 
The  Spirit  who  is  enthroned  over  the  conscience 
comes  with  the  prerogatives  of  a  new  lawgiver,  and 
brings  in  factors  of  righteousness  necessary  to  con- 
summate the  character  of  the  individual.  Under 
these  conditions  the  first  commandment  gives  out 
a  series  of  offshoots  which  take  account  of  the  endow- 
ments and  varying  responsibilities  in  each  separate 
member  of  the  holy  commonwealth.  Many  things 
may  prove  necessary  to  salvation  in  the  after-times, 
which  were  not  promulgated  by  the  founders  of  the 
theocratic  state.  When  the  young  ruler  approached 
Jesus  with  his  question,  he  was  not  sure  the  decalogue 
was  an  exhaustive  inventory  of  the  things  necessary 
to  eternal  life.  Whilst  inclining  to  a  cheerful  self- 
complacency  he  had,  at  the  same   time,  a   lurking 


THE    ENDLESS   ETHIC  393 

sense  of  incompleteness.  Jesus  showed  the  breadth 
of  the  law,  proving  that  perfection  meant  far  more 
than  respect  to  a  series  of  prohibitions.  The  voice 
which  urged  Paul  to  preach  the  gospel  was  as  Divine 
as  the  voice  which  called  from  the  cloud  to  the 
trembling  apostles,  "Hear  ye  Him";  and  he  could 
not  disobey,  unless  to  his  own  shame  and  eternal 
peril.  In  the  experience  of  many  besides  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles  perhaps  the  commandment  widens 
itself  out  to  include  a  call  to  preach  in  foreign  lands, 
or  a  crusade  at  home  against  betting,  impurity, 
drunkenness,  and  the  poverty  which  degrades  men. 
Many  things,  not  expressly  laid  down  in  the  begin- 
ning for  all,  are  pressed  home  by  the  Spirit  who  in- 
scribes the  inward  parts  of  a  man  with  his  mystic 
mandate.  To  make  a  sacrifice,  to  forego  an  unwhole- 
some pleasure,  to  take  up  a  rude  cross,  to  wrestle  with 
an  urgent  social  or  intellectual  problem,  may  be  a 
step  to  which  we  are  constrained  by  Him  who  is  the 
inward  lawgiver  of  the  New  Covenant.  The  Divine 
commandment  is  broad  as  the  Spirit's  suggestions 
within  the  heart,  and  vast  as  his  leadings  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  untrodden  world.  The 
whisper  heard  in  the  watches  of  the  night,  when  the 
heart  is  alone  with  the  impressions  which  arise  within 
it,  as  within  a  strangely  stirred  Bethesda,  is  not  the 
phantasy  of  caprice  or  the  muttering  of  some  spirit 
of  the  air,  but  solemn  and  majestic  as  the  thunder- 
voice  which  rolled  from  the  crags  of  Horeb. 

The  wider  knowledge  of  God  which  comes  with  the 
processes  of  spiritual  growth  cannot  fail  to  add  some- 
thing to  the  sum-total  of  our  duties.  The  short- 
comings of  the  earlier  law  correspond  to  the  inadequate 
degree  in  which  the  Divine  character  was  made  known 


394  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

to  men.     A  commandment,  going  beyond  the  ascer- 
tained and  recognised  character  of  the  Lawgiver  him- 
self, is  more  or  less  invalidated  from  the  beginning. 
It  presents  itself  as  a  strained  and  arbitrary  enact- 
ment, and  as  such  tends  to  provoke  opposition  rather 
than  win  compliance.      Coming  without   the   living, 
resistless   sanction   of  a    supreme  example,   it    must 
make  for  hypocrisy.      A  mandate   having   no   deep 
root  in   the  consistent  example  of  him  from  whom 
it  issues    lacks   the    motive-force   which  enables  for 
obedience,   and  is  self-condemned   as   an    impractic- 
able counsel  and  an  instrument  of  sanctimonious  for- 
mality.    The  law  acquires  new  potencies  when  it  is 
seen  to  arise  from  the  changeless  attributes  of  a  Divine 
nature.     As  God  unveils  Himself  in  the  providences 
of  history  and  the  new  economies  of  redemption,  the 
obligations  devolving  upon  those  who  wait  before  Him 
widen  in  their  scope  and  ramify  into  new  spheres  of 
relationship.     The  law  which  the  God  of  righteous- 
ness, and  the  Father  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth, 
may  impose  upon  the  children  of  men   is  obviously 
larger  in  its  range  of  applications  than  the  law  con- 
gruous to  the  sovereignty  of  one  known  chiefly  as  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  and  the  Defender  of  an  isolated  group 
of  clans.     The  precepts,  breathed  into  the  conscience 
by  One  who  has  come  into  immediate  converse  with 
His  worshippers,  exceed  in  scope  and  surpass  in  fine 
discriminations  the   precepts  enjoined    by  a    Divine 
King  who  dwells  apart  and  is  adored  from  afar  by  a 
people  smitten  with    fear   because   of   His    majesty. 
To    know    the    length    and  breadth,  the  depth   and 
height    of    the    love    which    surpasseth    knowledge 
means   that   the  soul  is  brought    face   to   face  with 
ranges  of  the  commandment  hitherto  unexplored  by 


THE    ENDLESS   ETHIC  395 

human  thought.  The  law  cannot  possibly  be  the 
same  for  an  Israelite  who  stands  before  the  flame- 
girt  Horeb,  and  the  believer  who  bows  wondering 
before  the  Cross  where  the  Man  of  Sorrows  bears  the 
burdens  of  mankind.  The  commandment  is  broad 
as  the  spreading  effulgence  of  the  Divine  attributes 
before  the  vision  of  the  man,  to  whom  all  life  is 
becoming  a  theophany. 

With  the  slow  ripening  of  the  soul  into  a  finer 
spiritual  consciousness  the  new  duties  implicit  in  the 
commandment  are  seen  at  last  to  cover  the  whole 
field  of  our  spiritual  relationships.  When  we  become 
endowed  with  the  power  of  discerning  the  unseen, 
we  feel  at  once  the  commandment  must  regulate  a 
domain  which  lies  beyond  the  cognisance  of  the 
senses.  The  conviction  fixes  itself  within  us  that 
there  are  supersensuous  duties  and  obligations  which 
outvie  in  import  the  precepts  which  regulate  the  life 
of  the  flesh.  A  symmetrical  law  must  take  account 
of  this  stupendous  evolution  which  brings  us  into 
ultimate  contact  with  invisible  realms.  Many  men 
and  women  have  a  faint,  defective  sense  of  the 
spiritual  relationships  in  which  human  life  is  set,  and 
look  upon  the  entire  duty  of  man  as  contained  in  the 
Ten  Commandments,  the  first  table  of  course  in- 
cluding the  outward  and  formal  recognition  of  an 
orthodox  God.  The  inner  life,  and  all  the  phases 
through  which  it  moves,  is  as  unreal  to  them  as  the 
mist  phantoms  which  hover  before  the  gaze  of  a 
superstitious  Highlander.  If  there  is  any  substance 
corresponding  to  these  subtle,  shifting  visions,  it 
is  impossible  to  order  our  attitude  towards  it  by  a 
code  of  intelligible  precepts.  But  as  the  eyes  of  the 
understanding  open  and  acquire  their  proper  focus. 


396  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

we  begin  to  find  that  the  spiritual  is  more  solemn 
and  far-reaching  than  the  material  and  must  be  con- 
trolled by  a  holy  law  of  which  the  duties  set  forth  in 
the  decalogue  are  representative  types.  There  are 
precepts  invested  with  Divine  sanctions,  by  which 
the  subtle  movements  of  our  higher  consciousness 
must  be  harmonised  and  regulated,  and  the  tides  of 
spiritual  affection  are  as  much  subject  to  control  and 
may  be  as  truly  guided  in  their  proper  channels  as 
the  affections  which  arise  within  us  by  force  of 
natural  instinct.  There  must  be  a  daily  enlargement 
of  the  province  of  the  law,  and  a  widening  of  the 
interests  to  which  it  is  applied,  or  no  advance 
towards  the  infinite  is  possible  ;  and  it  is  in  this 
unbroken  advance  that  human  excellence  consists. 
The  standard  of  perfection  lifts  itself  on  new  heights 
with  the  march  of  each  new  day  and  month.  The 
perfection  of  yesterday  ceases  to  be  the  perfection 
of  to-day,  because  the  commandment  is  ever  adding 
increments  to  the  demands  it  makes  upon  us,  and 
binding  the  conscience  with  fresh  sanctions.  As 
men  are  emancipated  from  the  senses  and  ushered 
into  more  delicate  spheres  of  perception  and  ex- 
perience, they  find  themselves  face  to  face  with 
new  laws  that  have  to  be  kept,  new  decalogues  that 
must  be  reverently  obeyed,  new  obligations  that 
must  be  strenuously  fulfilled. 

A  broadening  knowledge  of  social  and  inter- 
national interests  and  the  problems  they  involve, 
compels  us  to  give  an  extended  range  of  application 
to  the  principles  of  primeval  law.  New  vices  some- 
times appear  in  modern  communities  against  which 
the  forces  of  new  precepts  must  be  marshalled.  The 
romance  of  inventions  and  discoveries  is  often  inter- 


THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC  z^7 

leaved  with  chapters  in  new  arts  of  self-indulgence, 
piquant  sensualities,  vices  without  tears  ;  and  new 
commandments  must  be  promulgated  to  arrest  the 
march  of  these  insidious  invaders.  Men  profess  to 
find  in  the  Bible  maxims  which  will  cover  all  the 
possibilities  of  human  conduct,  and  feel  built  up  and 
comforted  if  there  are  no  positive  enactments  which 
condemn  their  new-fangled  besetments  and  in- 
firmities. Such  an  attitude  of  mind  is  foolish  and 
ignorant.  New  researches  may  open  up  to  men  new 
sensations,  for  which  the  present  age  craves,  and 
which  may  prove  fatal  to  the  highest  side  of  human 
character.  New  drugs,  which  have  the  highest 
value  in  medicine,  are  sometimes  perverted  into 
new  debaucheries.  Businesses,  once  just  and  reput- 
able become  honeycombed  with  betting  or  minister 
to  sottish  squalor,  and  at  last  call  for  the  anathemas 
of  an  undivided  Christendom.  With  our  g-rowinsf 
knowledge  acts  which  were  once  looked  upon  as 
purely  indifferent  take  on  a  complexion  of  hurt- 
fulness  and  need  a  strong  mandate  to  suppress  them. 
A  century  ago  our  forefathers  held  that  their  drains 
were  nobody's  concern  but  their  own,  and  with  an 
air  of  innocence  dumped  down  insanitary  refuse, 
little  dreaming  they  were  sowing  the  seeds  of  disease 
and  death  in  the  homes  of  their  neighbours.  The 
telegraph  that  summons  the  doctor  in  time  to  save  a 
life  carries  the  devastating  messages  of  the  bookmaker. 
The  ocean  cable  which  brings  news  of  distant  earth- 
quakes, fires,  famines,  and  so  lays  upon  us  duties 
of  help  unknown  to  our  ancestors,  lends  itself  also 
to  these  tactics  of  garble  used  b\'  tiie  man  who  wants 
to  breed  bad  blood  and  make  gains  out  of  a  war. 
The  unfair  treatment  of  a  Chinaman  in  Australia  or 


398  THE   ENDLESS   ETHIC 

the  United  States  provokes  a  boycott  upon  foreign 
trade  in  the  Far  East,  and  perhaps  costs  some 
soHtary  missionary  on  a  station,  to  which  no  pro- 
tecting gunboat  can  go,  his  Hfe.  Modern  morahty 
becomes  curiously  complex  and  far-reaching  in  its 
sio^nificance  so  that  broader  commandments  are  often 
needed  to  meet  the  emergencies  which  arise.  But 
where  is  the  Moses  of  our  day  and  generation  ? 
Who  is  to  promulgate  the  precepts  demanded  by 
the  crisis  of  the  hour  ?  The  Church  ?  Would  to 
God  it  were  sufficiently  wise  and  strong !  A 
generation  ago  it  might  have  proscribed  alcohol 
on  ethical  and  altruistic  grounds  and  made  the 
Cross  as  free  from  reproach  as  the  Crescent.  But 
it  missed  its  opportunity.  In  the  course  of  another 
century  science  will  promulgate  the  broader  com- 
mandment demanded  by  the  social  disease  of  our 
day,  but  upon  purely  hygienic  grounds.  A  man  will 
be  an  anti-alcoholist  not  from  ethical  or  religious 
motives,  but  as  a  counsel  of  selfishness.  He  will 
deny  himself  strong  drink  for  precisely  the  same 
reason  that  he  declines  to  live  in  a  house  with  bad 
drains.  The  future  generation  will  be  driven  to  take 
up  a  position  the  Church  did  not  dare  to  affirm  upon 
religious  grounds. 

The  Ten  Commandments  were  converted  back 
into  two  that  they  might  be  multiplied  into  ten 
thousand.  The  fact  that  there  were  only  ten — and 
ten  was  considered  the  number  of  secular  perfection 
— conveyed  the  impression  that  the  last  word  of  the 
law  had  been  spoken,  and  that  all  coming  genera- 
tions might  make  their  tabernacles  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Sinai. 

New  types  of  obligation  grow  up  out  of  the  hopes 


THE    ENDLP:sS    ethic  399 

God   inspires   within    His  servants,  for  to  solicit  a 
distant  goal  is  to  will  the  means  by  which  the  goal 
is  reached.     The  prophet  who  sees  the  vision   of  a 
new  heaven  and  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness 
is  bound  to  promulgate  the  rules  of  life  by  which  the 
change  may  be  brought  to  pass.     He  who  depicts  a 
holy  mountain,  in  which  the  very  beasts  of  the  field 
shall   no  longer   hurt  or  destroy,  is  bound  to  a  new 
standard  of  kindness  and  humanity  in  his   personal 
temper  and  habit.     The  prophet  who  depicts  the  end 
of  war   is  bound   to  take  part    in   fulfilling  his  own 
prophecy   and    must   denounce    the   politics   of  the 
sword    and    the  spear.       He   who   enters    into   the 
Divine  mind  and  paints  a  commonwealth  from  which 
want,  sickness,  and  discontent  have  passed  away  is 
sworn  to  set   himself  against   the   drinking-bar,  the 
turf,  the   waste   and    extravagance  of  the    rich,   the 
occasions   of  unemployment,  and    to    preach  a   law 
against   all  that    retards    the  Divine  consummation. 
If  the  world  is  to  become  a  scene  of  sobriety   and 
self-restraint  the  inspiration  which  creates  the  ideal, 
creates  sanctions  also  for  the  rules  and  methods  by 
which  such  a  condition  of  society  is  to  be  reached. 
The  preachers  of  a  redemptive  epoch  in   Israel  pre- 
pared the  way  for  that  fuller  ethic  of  Jesus  in  which 
law  and  prophets  alike  were   to  be  fulfilled.     Every 
inspired  forecast  of  the  after-days  carries  within  it  a 
mandate  no  less  fully  inspired   for  the  methods  by 
which    society    is    to    be    bettered ;    and    thus    our 
growing    and    enlarging     hopes     give     birth    to    a 
broader  commandment. 


XX 

THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

"And  the  very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly;  and  I 
pray  God  your  whole  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  preserved 
blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. — 
I  Thess.  v.  23. 

The  root-word  "holy"  from  which  the  verb  *' sanc- 
tify "  is  derived,  means  that  which  belongs  to  God. 
The  primitive  uses  of  the  term  describe  the  field 
reserved  for  the  growth  of  sacrificial  grains  and  fruits, 
the  ground  marked  off  for  God's  habitation  and  for 
the  religious  acts  of  His  worshippers,  the  shrines  and 
altars  subsequently  placed  there,  the  sacrifices  pre- 
sented, the  vessels  of  the  altar  ;  and  last  of  all  the 
priests  who  ministered  in  sacred  things.  The  first 
significance  of  the  word  was  ritual,  but  with  that 
clearer  perception  of  God  which  came  through  the 
progress  of  revelation,  the  ritual  colour  of  the  word 
disappeared,  and  it  became  essentially  ethical. 
Perhaps  ritual  associations  still  cling  to  the  word  in 
one  or  two  debatable  passages  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  but  from  the  days  of  the  Sermon  on  the 

Mount,  nay,  even    from    the   times   of  the  prophets, 

400 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  401 

it  became  obvious  that  whatever  belonged  to  a  pure 
and  righteous  God  must  correspond  with  His  nature, 
and  be  responsive  to  the  uses  of  a  spiritual  service. 

In  the  sanctification  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Father's 
redemptive  service  of  inankind,  a  process  by  which 
He  passed  from  unspotted  personal  perfection  into 
the  new  perfection  of  a  vicarious  Mediatorship,  two 
methods  of  operation  merge  into  each  other.  Our 
Lord  speaks  of  Himself  as  "  Him  whom  the  Father 
sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world."  The  life  re- 
ceived from  the  everlasting  springs  brought  with  it 
inspirations  of  love,  which  determined  His  office  and 
moved  Him  to  an  act  of  supreme  self-dedication  for 
the  race.  Side  by  side  with  the  effusion  of  sanctif}'- 
ing  life  from  the  Father  there  came  the  voluntary 
consecration  of  the  Son  to  His  sacred  and  benicrn 
tasks.     '*  And  for  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself" 

And  in  the  sanctification  of  the  redeemed  Church 
two  similar  acts  must  be  co-ordinated — sanctification 
by  the  act  and  operation  of  God  Himself,  and  also  a 
sanctification  in  the  free,  practical,  self-determined 
acts  of  the  daily  life,  responding  to  the  will  and  work 
of  God.  These  two  factors  are  recognised  in  the 
chapter  before  us,  one  factor  represented  by  the 
group  of  preceding  exhortations,  and  the  other 
expressed  in  the  apostle's  prayer. 

The  prayer  follows  a  series  of  detailed  exhorta- 
tions which  cover  the  entire  ground  of  Chris- 
tian duty.  The  first  group  defines  the  believer's 
relation  to  the  elect  community  with  which  he  is 
incorporated.  "  Admonish  the  disorderly,  encourage 
the  faint-hearted,  be  longsuffering  toward  all."  The 
next  group  ranges  over  the  believer's  relations  to  the 
outside  world.     *'  l^Lver  follow  that  which  is  good  one 

27 


402  THE   GIFT  WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

toward  another,  and  toward  all."  Other  groups  of 
precepts  deal  with  the  attitude  of  the  secret  soul  to 
its  unseen  God  and  Helper.  "  Rejoice  always.  Pray 
without  ceasing.  In  everything  give  thanks."  There 
are  also  counsels  which  define  the  disciple's  attitude 
to  the  truth  and  to  the  unseen  Spirit  of  truth  in  his 
inward  ministrations.  "  Despise  not  prophesyings. 
Prove  all  things.  Hold  fast  that  which  is  good." 
And  this  is  followed  by  the  all-inclusive  behest, 
"  Abstain  from  every  form  of  evil." 

These  urgent  words  make  ready  for  a  prayer  which, 
whilst  looking  to  present  duties,  finds  its  goal  at  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ,  and  covers  all  that  lies 
between  the  two  extremes.  It  is  from  the  Divine 
Presence  that  grace  comes  down  through  which 
these  many  exhortations  are  fulfilled  ;  and  the 
struggle  to  attain  such  standards  of  excellence  in  the 
common  life  is  the  sign  of  an  unseen  power  already 
working  to  hallow  the  disciple.  Our  best  endeavours 
to  be  holy  through  these  concentric  spheres  of 
obligation  are  vain,  apart  from  the  gift  which  is  in 
God's  keeping.  But  on  the  other  hand,  till  the  mind 
bends  itself  to  this  broad  category  of  duties,  praying 
for  this  high  gift,  which  was  the  subject  of  the 
apostle's  thought,  is  useless.  The  terms  are  not 
established  under  which  the  gift  can  be  received. 
One  might  as  well  pray  for  the  sanctification  of 
Lucifer  into  blameless  humility  as  pray  that  the  gift 
of  holiness  may  come  to  a  man  who  does  not  sub- 
mit himself  to  all  the  precepts  of  a  holy  God. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  sanctification  is  the  goal 
reached  after  years  spent  in  practising  the  laws  of 
the  Christian  life.  Blameless  habits  of  thought  and 
character   must   be    slowly   built    up ;    for   practical 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIP^IES  403 


holiness  has  nothing  in  common  with  those  rapid 
renewals  which  often  mark  a  first  conversion.  It  is 
not  a  sudden  gift  of  the  Spirit.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  we  are  told  that  sanctification  is  a  state  which 
follows  from  the  direct  forthputting  of  Divine  power 
in  response  to  faith.  If  this  is  so,  it  surely  tends 
to  be  as  sharp  in  its  demarcations  as  the  revolution 
in  the  jailor's  soul  at  Thilippi. 

Is  it  not  clear  that  the  change  may  be  either 
protracted  or  instantaneous,  as  one  or  the  other 
element  predominates  ?  Our  perplexing  contro- 
versies arise  from  forgetting  this  distinction.  The 
exhortations,  which  preface  the  apostle's  prayer, 
show  that  God's  sanctifying  work  can  scarcely  be 
thought  of  as  taking  place  in  natures  not  yet  stirred 
into  struggle.  It  is  the  weak  point  in  some  move- 
ments which  aim  at  teaching  the  fuller  Christian 
life,  that  sanctification  is  viewed  as  possible  through 
a  sovereign  demonstration  of  power,  irrespective  of 
the  conditions  in  which  the  soul  has  placed  itself. 
These  groups  of  precepts  assume  that  the  believer 
has  his  own  part  to  play,  and  that  he  may  be 
slow  to  find  out  what  that  part  is.  Superficial  pro- 
fessions of  a  higher  life  are  sometimes  made.  Men 
and  women  hurry  themselves  into  an  undefined 
trust,  and  take  vague  and  unweighed  words  into 
their  lips,  without  first  coming  to  adequate  self- 
knowledge  and  testing  their  wills  through  the  whole 
gamut  of  obligation.  But  the  law  of  holiness 
applied  in  practical  life  may  mean  pay  a  debt, 
admit  and  repair  a  wrong,  end  an  estrangement, 
undertake  an  irksome  service,  put  God  before  either 
country  or  king,  and  make  His  fellowship  the 
ruling  aim.     The  blessing  hovering  before  the  imagi- 


404  THE   GIFT   WHICH   SANCTIFIES 

nation  does  not  always  seem  to  consist  in  such 
concrete  acts.  A  fine  tide  of  religious  sentiment 
comes  surging  through  the  soul,  and  there  may 
even  be  a  solemn  sense  of  God,  and  yet  the  will 
has  not  bent  itself  to  these  practical  issues.  And 
thus  it  is  that  unsound  and  premature  confessions  of 
a  deepened  religious  life  are  made  which  repel  con- 
scientious observers.  It  is  against  the  Divine  order 
that  this  great  gift  should  be  bestowed  till  the  will 
is  ready  to  obey  through  the  whole  area  of  daily 
activity  and  relationship.  And  the  range  of  duty, 
moreover,  tends  to  be  always  broadening  itself  out. 
The  sanctity  which  is  without  reproach  at  one 
epoch  of  the  experience  may  be  partial  and  im- 
perfect when  the  larger  knowledge  has  come.  The 
will  must  be  ever  bending  itself  to  new  obligations 
as  fast  as  they  are  disclosed. 

And  yet  there  is  another  side  to  the  subject.  It 
is  an  irrelevancy  to  speak  of  restraints  of  time  when 
God  uplifts  Himself  to  deal  with  the  souls  waiting 
at  His  feet.  If  self-knowledge  is  deep,  the  judgment 
duly  informed,  and  the  will  submissive  to  the  full 
measure  of  the  light  received,  the  work  enters  upon 
a  stage  which  is  purely  Divine.  By  an  inward 
movement  upon  the  secret  springs  of  the  life, 
through  which  God  takes  possession  of  the  believer 
for  His  own  peculiar  use  and  service,  the  hallowing 
processes  may  be  of  surprising  swiftness.  God's 
work  is  no  longer  paced  to  human  reckonings  when 
the  soul  is  passive  in  His  hands.  The  grace  which 
calls  out  sanctities,  free  from  spot  or  flaw,  is  God's 
gift,  His  response  to  fervent  and  unceasing  prayer  ; 
and  God's  gifts  do  not  descend  upon  slow  or 
wavering  wings. 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  405 

The  effectual  power,  the  wide  range,  and  the 
unbroken  perpetuity  of  this  great  blessing  are  the 
three  aspects  of  the  subject  on  which  stress  is  put 
in  the  apostle's  prayer.  The  interests,  affections, 
and  activities  of  man's  complex  nature  must  be 
hallowed  by  a  grace  from  God — hallowed  in  their 
undivided  integrity,  and  hallowed  for  all  coming 
time. 

This  work  is  linked  with  the  sense  of  inward 
peace.  "The  God  of  peace  Himself  sanctify  you." 
The  grace  completes  the  reconciling  work  of  the 
Cross.  It  is  the  soul  which  God  has  effectually 
tranquillised  that  becomes  possessed  for  His  own 
daily  uses.  The  gift  which  stills  the  inward  tumult 
is  a  step  in  the  method  by  which  God  perfects 
His  people.  The  breath  of  God  creates  within  the 
soul  realms  of  Sabbath  calm,  which  enwrap  its  move- 
ments. The  temper  of  sanctity  must  be  fed  from 
this  sweet  and  mystic  spring.  When  deep  inward 
contentment  comes  to  the  mind  and  establishes 
itself  in  the  character,  the  human  and  Divine  wills 
blend,  and  the  nature  is  made  holy  in  all  its  parts 
and  properties.  The  specious  pleasures  of  the 
world  and  the  flesh  no  longer  allure  man  from  his 
true  centre. 

Is  this  peace  the  cause  or  the  product  of  a 
sanctified  habit  of  mind  and  life?  It  may  be  both. 
The  healing  forces  of  nature  cannot  assert  them- 
selves, whilst  restless  fevers  still  burn  in  the  blood 
and  brain,  and  the  parallel  holds  in  the  kingdom 
of  grace.  Before  our  moral  errors  and  shortcomings 
can  disappear,  God  must  abate  the  disquiets  of  in- 
ward passion  and  allay  the  unsleeping  discontents 
of  the   soul.     And    this    He   can  do,  for  He  is   the 


4o6  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

God    of  peace,  and   His   hallowing   presence   begets 
inward,  sacred,  inviolable  calm. 

This  peace,  the  twin  grace  to  sanctity,  should  prove 
itself  inexhaustible,  for  it  flows  from  the  unchangeable 
and   soul-reconciling   God.     An  ingenious  man  once 
tried  a  scheme  for  making  his  bees  gather  honey  all 
the  year  through.     He  placed  the  hives  upon  a  raft, 
which  moved  up  and  down  the  Mississippi  River,  with 
the  changes  of  the  seasons.     By  following  the  steps 
of   the   Spring  through    the    latitudes   traversed    by 
that  great  waterway,  he  was  able  to  bring  the  bees 
within  reach  of  the    flowers  from  which  they  drew 
their  stores  of  sweetness.     Through  the  long  round 
of  the  months  they  were  moving  in  the  sunshine  and 
collecting  nectar  from  the  fragrant  blooms.     And  the 
man  whose  spirit  is  kept  near  to  God  finds  sources  of 
contentment  which  enable  him,  under  all  changes,  to 
continue   in  acceptable   work  and  service.     Because 
tribulations  are  many,  this  is  impossible  in  the  world, 
but  by  making  his  home  in  God  he  may  find  access 
to  that  which    is    denied  him    in  the  scenes  of  the 
senses.     The  souls  responsive  to  His  presence,  and 
obeying    His   daily  calls,   are  encircled  with  mystic 
Edens  of  beauty  and  delight.     Strange  flowers  bloom 
at   every  stage    of    the    pilgrim   journeyings.      The 
currents  of  common  life  need  not  take  the  believer 
beyond  the  everlasting  Spring.     In  changing  scenes 
he    may   find  a  faithful  God,  and   may  rest  in    the 
promises   of  a  word  which  never    fades.     It  is  true 
the   roots   of  bitterness,  whence   trouble  and  moral 
failure  arise,  are  still  in  the  flesh,  but  if  God  endures, 
the   serenity  which  has  its  sources  in  His  presence 
continues  ;  and  through  this  abiding  peace  a  sanctity 
is  possible  which  need  not  be  sullied  into  dimness  or 


thp:  gift  which  sanctifif:s  407 


withered  into  failure.  But  is  not  this  a  dream  ?  It 
is  a  dream  only  because  the  soul  refuses  to  find 
its  springs  in  God.  Fertile  plains  spread  themselves 
out  along  the  banks  of  the  river  flowing  from  His 
throne,  and  if  we  fail  to  prove  the  peace  and  the 
sweetness  awaiting  us  there,  it  is  because  our  desires 
turn  again  to  the  world.  A  God  who  cannot  satisfy 
our  thirsts  and  tranquillise  our  inward  tumults  cannot 
fully  hallow  us  to  His  service.  Let  this  solemn  calm, 
this  mystic  effusion,  this  unspeakable  gift,  shed  itself 
abroad  within  the  soul  and  the  quest  for  alien 
satisfactions  will  cease.  It  is  only  thus  men  attain 
that  centre  of  spiritual  perfection  after  which  the 
noblest  in  all  ages  have  aspired.  If  we  faint  with 
discouragement,  and  despair  of  the  high  standard  set 
before  us,  it  is  because  we  have  failed  to  know  God  as 
the  God  of  peace. 

This  prayer  implies  that  sanctity  is  produced  in 
the  character  by  a  direct  act  of  Divine  power.  That 
which  is  offered  to  God  becomes  holy,  not  by  the 
intention  of  the  worshipper  only,  but  in  virtue  of 
God's  effectual  acceptance  of  it  for  His  own  posses- 
sion. To  make  a  frail,  weak,  fallen  creatui;^  a  pattern 
of  sanctity  is  as  much  a  creative  work  as  to  call  forth 
the  first  pulse  of  light  from  the  primeval  darkness. 
It  is  true  there  must  be  the  willing  mind  in  the 
subject  of  the  process.  Through  the  far-ranging 
duties  set  forth  in  the  New  Testament,  and  in  all 
those  practical  issues  of  the  daily  life  which  seem 
to  be  covered  by  no  specific  law,  a  man  must  be 
prepared  to  surrender  himself  to  God.  ]^ut  when 
even  this  point  is  reached  there  is  something  a  man 
cannot  do,  and  for  which  he  must  pra)'  in  utter 
helplessness.     He    might    as    well   try   to   command 


4o8  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

the  uprising  of  the  dawn  as  to  make  himself  into 
a  child  of  the  spotless  light.  God  must  enter  into 
open  possession  of  the  nature,  and  it  is  not  enough 
that  its  powers  should  be  placed  at  the  Divine 
disposal.  An  incomparably  sacred  touch  can  alone 
put  this  unearthly  imprint  upon  the  spirit  and  life. 
The  old  distractions,  seducing  the  soul  into  meaner 
paths,  will  prevail  once  more,  unless  the  Divine 
indwelling  make  the  soul  into  a  sanctuary  of  en- 
during rest.  When  the  sign  of  this  presence  passed 
from  the  ancient  temple,  annulling  the  guarantees 
set  up  at  its  dedication,  the  serenity  of  long  solemn 
centuries  was  broken  and  the  profane  intruder  rushed 
in.  The  living  contact  of  God's  personality  makes 
the  unspotted  consecration  and  its  attendant  peace. 

The  things  of  the  first  tabernacle  lacked  consum- 
mate sacredness  till  the  symbolic  fire,  the  token  of 
God's  presence,  touched  every  thread  of  the  fabric 
and  made  the  burnished  vessels  to  glow  with  mystic 
llumination.  This  was  the  pledge  that  God  accepted 
for  His  possession  the  gifts  which  had  been  tendered. 
The  works  of  Bezaleel  and  his  fellow-craftsmen  were 
the  best  ihat  age  could  produce.  An  art-critic  of 
the  wilderness  might  have  found  it  hard  to  point 
out  errors  of  design  or  inaccuracies  of  execution. 
The  tapestries  were  of  carefully  selected  material 
and  well  balanced  in  form  and  colour.  The  bowls, 
dishes,  lamps,  and  the  plates  of  the  golden  altar, 
were  of  metals  from  which  the  dross  had  been  taken 
by  repeated  refinings.  No  scratch  disfigured  the 
shining  surfaces.  From  both  the  inner  and  outer 
courts  of  the  tabernacle  the  Levites  had  carried 
away  every  broken  stick  and  splinter.  The  house 
had    been    made    faultlessly   clean,    and    no   defiling 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  409 

footstep  was  allowed  to  cross  the  threshold.  Vigilant 
and  jealous  e\'es  watched  every  part  of  the  fabric. 
But  when  man  had  done  his  uttermost  he  could  not 
make  the  tabernacle  holy.  It  became  so  in  the  hour 
when  Divine  power  and  glory  descended  as  in  a 
cloud  of  fire  and  God  thus  marked  it  out  for  His 
dwelling-place.  This  was  the  hallowing  element 
in  gold  and  temple  and  after-offering. 

The  setting  up  of  devout  habits,  virtuous  rules  of  life, 
the  disciplines  of  the  flesh  and  self-restraint,  outward 
conformity  to  the  dictates  of  religion,  right  attitudes  of 
mind,  attempts  to  build  up  the  character  in  righteous- 
ness, all  make  ready  for  the  state  of  sanctification ;  but 
such  things,  however  urgent,  do  not  constitute  the 
essence  of  this  beatific  experience.  It  is  the  contact 
of  the  unseen  God  which  enables  and  energises  the 
consecration  of  the  soul  to  unspotted  service.  He 
Himself  must  come  into  the  nature,  taking  for 
His  own  possession  whatever  it  may  have  to  offer, 
and  shining  there  till  the  whole  manhood  becomes 
refulgent.  If  God  reign  within  us  the  halo  of  un- 
blemished goodness  will  encircle  those  activities  upon 
which  the  world  is  looking,  as  well  as  beautify  the 
inner  shrines  of  thought  which  are  veiled  from  eyes 
of  flesh. 

But  the  act  that  fully  hallows  God's  people  is  re- 
plete with  a  deeper  virtue  than  the  cloud  of  symbolic 
splendour  which  hovered  over  the  sanctuary.  That 
put  the  mark  of  Divine  adoption  and  acceptance  upon 
workmanship  carried  to  the  utmost  limit  of  the  crafts- 
man's art,  thus  sealing  it  for  God's  separate  uses.  But 
this  hallowing  act,  to  which  the  apostle  was  looking, 
enters  into  the  inmost  substance  of  the  being.  It 
transmutes   the  component  parts  of  the  life,  and  to 


4IO  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

natures  once  coarse  conveys  a  touch  of  supreme 
transfiguration.  When  we  have  done  our  best  to 
make  ready  and  dedicate  these  human  temples,  with 
all  they  contain,  many  a  mark  of  imperfection  appears. 
There  are  ugly  threads  running  through  the  tapestries, 
spots  of  stubborn  dimness  upon  the  vessels,  rents  in 
the  holy  garments,  discords  and  unsightly  failures  in 
the  ministries.  The  spirit  is  willing,  but  we  are  help- 
less to  carry  our  delicate  self-rectifications  to  more 
excellent  levels.  Attempts  to  remove  these  spiritual 
disfigurements  leave  legacies  of  schism,  patchwork, 
and  confusion  in  their  train.  But  the  act  of  God 
brings  with  it  a  mystery  of  creative  power  before 
which  all  unseemly  things  disappear  into  oblivion. 
A  transmutation  passes  through  every  texture  of 
the  character.  If  He  work  not  we  are  undone,  and 
our  lives  must  always  continue  unspiritual.  The 
work  is  His  alone.  Let  us  lie  at  His  feet  and  await 
the  touch  which  sanctifies.  Who  knows  when  the 
cloud  may  descend  and  our  lives,  with  all  they 
comprehend,  may  be  made  holy  ? 

The  sanctification  here  asked  is  complete — free 
from  defect,  blemish,  or  after-degeneration.  The 
prayer  is  daring  beyond  our  dreams,  but  it  is  no  mere 
form  of  words,  for  it  is  apostolic,  and  to  ask  less  than 
this  would,  in  Paul's  view,  have  been  to  pay  stinted 
homage  to  God's  grace  and  power.  The  word  repre- 
sented by  the  adverb  "wholly"  of  our  translation,  is 
made  up  of  two  Greek  adjectives  which  are  fused 
together.  The  first  means  the  sum-total  without 
omission  of  a  single  part ;  and  the  second  that  which 
is  consummated,  in  contrast  to  that  which  is  inceptive 
only. 

Sanctification  must  deal  with   all    the   spheres  of 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  411 

which  man's  nature  consists.  St.  Paul  divides  human 
personality  into  three  constituent  parts.  This  is 
largely  an  open  question  of  philosophy.  In  this 
classification  of  the  faculties  Paul  probably  followed 
the  current  teaching  of  his  age,  or  the  method  of  the 
school  in  which  he  had  been  trained.  But  whether 
we  analyse  man's  nature  into  three,  thirty,  or  three 
hundred  parts,  mapping  out  the  functions  of  the  con- 
sciousness with  the  minute  precision  of  an  ordnance 
survey,  every  part  must  be  sanctified  to  God.  No 
human  power  or  faculty  lies  outside  the  range  of  this 
consecrating  grace. 

And  not  only  must  God  possess  each  particular 
part  of  the  man  for  His  own  uses,  but  an  appointed 
goal  must  be  reached,  and  God's  purposes  at  each 
succeeding  stage  of  our  life  must  be  triumphantly 
attained.  Wherever  a  genuine  conversion  occurs, 
the  process  at  once  sets  in  which  tends,  sooner  or 
later,  to  make  the  man  holy.  All  united  to  Christ, 
whether  at  Rome,  Corinth,  or  Colossae  are  saints.  But 
this  initial  work  makes  the  postulant  rather  than  the 
ripe  master.  Although  God  sanctifies  upon  the  very 
threshold  every  son  He  receives,  as  far  as  the  work 
is  possible,  for  the  contrite  man  may  only  half  know 
himself  and  desire  grace  without  realising  the  full 
measure  he  needs  ;  yet  with  the  discipline,  experience, 
and  temptation  of  life  new  discernments  arise,  and 
the  sphere  through  which  the  sanctifying  grace  of 
Ciod  can  take  effect  enlarges  itself  Both  these  ideas 
are  suggested  by  the  adverb  "  wholly." 

In  the  next  clause  the  apostle  gives  us  the  threefold 
category  under  which  he  has  been  accustomed  to 
think  of  human  personality,  *'  spirit,  soul,  and  body." 
Under   the   term    "  spirit "    he   describes  the  life  of 


412  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

intelligence,  will,  moral  sensibility  which  we  share  in 
common  with  God  himself.  By  the  "soul  "  he  indi- 
cates that  life  of  desire,  appetite,  natural  passion 
which  we  possess  in  common  with  the  animal  kingdom. 
By  the  *'  body  "  he,  of  course,  refers  to  that  part  of 
our  being  which  links  us  with  the  external  world,  the 
organ  through  which  we  take  our  part  in  the  active 
social  life  and  cosmic  order  around  us. 

In  the  life  of  thought,  in  all  the  currents  of  passion 
and  sensibility,  in  the  practical  movements  forced 
upon  us  as  members  of  visible  communities,  God 
must  so  possess  and  command  us  for  His  uses,  that 
we  shall  be  without  blame  before  Him. 

The  sanctification  of  human  nature  in  its  several 
parts  may  be  illtistrated  by  three  temperaments,  in 
one  or  other  of  which  certain  elements  seem  to 
dominate  the  rest.  In  the  mystic,  whose  life  gathers 
itself  up  into  contemplation,  and  who  is  sometimes 
described  as  an  impracticable  dreamer,  we  may  see 
how  God  possesses  for  His  own  uses  the  spirit  and  its 
finer  faculties.  Perhaps  the  man's  constitution  is 
such  that  the  passions  are  tame  and  few,  at  any  rate 
they  tend  to  disappear  from  the  daily  life  in  their 
most  innocent  forms  and  manifestations.  This  type 
of  Christian,  whose  nature  inclines  to  focuss  itself 
in  spiritual  meditations  and  employments,  shrinks 
from  the  rough  world-problems  which  lie  outside, 
although  no  practical  duty,  once  endorsed  by  the 
conscience,  is  shirked.  Aggressive  enterprises  do  not 
enlist  his  immediate  interests,  and  he  desires  to  dwell 
alone  with  God,  that  the  Spirit  may  inform  and 
permeate  his  thoughts.  There  is  a  mild  animal  soul 
somewhere  in  the  man,  and  he  has  a  more  or  less 
attenuated  body  of  flesh,  which  at  one  time  or  other 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  413 

needed  f^race  ;  but  the  chief  note  of  the  life  is  that  of 
spiritual  absorption.  Sometimes,  perhaps,  he  declares 
that  the  soul,  with  its  tides  of  passion,  has  no  place 
in  the  king^dom  of  God,  and  that  the  less  made  of  the 
body  and  its  coarse  senses  the  better.  Another  man 
becomes  genuinely  holy,  the  groundwork  of  whose 
temperament  is  animal,  and  who  to  the  very  end  is 
noted  for  his  physical  virility.  Perhaps  he  repels 
the  mystic  of  fine  spiritual  perceptions,  who  can 
scarcely  believe  that  the  psychic  energies  may  be 
sanctified  and  that  God  may  have  His  own  ends  to 
serve  through  these  transmuted  passion-forces.  But 
in  spite  of  this  lack  of  high  spiritual  aptitudes,  the 
grosser  nature,  which  once  obtruded  itself  and  set  its 
broad  mark  upon  the  disposition,  has  been  chastened 
and  sanctified,  and  God  can  find  uses  for  it  in  His 
economies.  Some  one  has  spoken  of  *'  the  Divine 
brutality  of  Martin  Luther,"  and  there  is  shrewd 
truth  in  the  descriptive  phrase.  Human  passion  was 
in  him  to  the  end.  It  had  its  providential  uses  but 
did  not  break  out  into  lawlessness  or  detract  from  the 
genuine  sanctity  of  his  character.  The  men  who  do 
not  muse  upon  the  subtler  mysteries  of  religion, 
or  feel  vehemently,  but  who  are  always  trying  to 
do  good,  illustrate  the  sanctification  of  the  body  and 
its  powers.  There  are  strict  Christian  moralists  in 
the  marts  of  commercial  struggle,  grand  philan- 
thropists in  the  Board-rooms  of  Committees,  men 
true  to  a  high  Christian  ethic  in  public  life  and 
ruling  over  homes  into  which  no  meanness  or 
duplicity  ever  comes,  who  are  saints,  although  the 
spiritual  apocalypse  within  them  is  little  more  than 
a  faint  flutter.  For  the  higher  reaches  of  religious 
thought    they   have    little  or   no  aptitude,  the  wave 


414  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

of  revival  emotion,  which  gathers  up  into  itself 
whatever  can  be  utilised  from  the  passion  of  the 
blood,  passes  them  by  ;  but  they  are  always  doing 
good.  Their  inability  to  sit  down  in  a  quiet  retreat 
or  a  convention  is  a  constitutional  infirmity,  but  their 
restlessness  to  help  the  poor  and  the  forlorn  illus- 
trates the  sanctification  of  the  body  for  God's  ends 
of  compassion.  Soul  and  spirit  of  course  become 
holy,  but  in  the  less  noteworthy  degrees  which 
fit  their  belated  unfoldings. 

Whilst  these  several  factors  of  the  personality  are 
blended  together  in  different  proportions  in  various 
men,  all  parts  of  the  life  must  be  sanctified,  according 
to  the  stage  of  development  attained.  The  holiness 
that  has  any  claim  to  be  called  complete  must  be 
both  inward  and  outward.  If  there  is  a  corrupt 
deposit  in  the  dark,  unswept  niches  of  the  inner 
courts,  well-swept  outward  courts  will  count  for 
little.  Sanctity  includes  motive  as  well  as  external 
obedience.  God  does  not  possess  for  His  own  uses 
and  hallow  with  tokens  of  His  presence  that  temple 
the  outward  portals  of  which  have  been  cleansed. 
His  processes  must  go  from  top  to  bottom  and  end 
to  side  of  the  complete  personality. 

The  spirit  stands  first  in  this  enumeration  be- 
cause the  work  within  its  unseen  recesses  deter- 
mines the  surrender  of  the  rest  of  a  man's  powers 
to  God's  uses.  This  is  the  point  at  which  we  touch 
the  Eternal.  Just  as  fire  came  first  to  the  altar  and 
from  that  central  point  spread  in  mystic  and 
broadening  illumination  to  the  outer  courts,  with 
their  lamps,  vessels,  and  sacred  treasures,  so  in  the 
later  dispensation,  the  process  by  which  God  claims 
men  for  His  will   and   hallows  their  powers,  begins 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  415 

with  the  spirit.  Here  is  the  golden  altar,  and  God 
descends  into  soul  and  body  by  first  stirring  into 
movement  those  higher  affinities  which  link  our 
natures  immediately  with  His  own.  The  strict 
and  unhalting  preparation  of  the  outward  life  is 
imperative,  but  the  mystery  through  which  we 
become  God's  dawns  at  the  inmost  centre  of  our 
being.  We  can  never  level  ourselves  up  to  this  state 
by  bodily  acts  and  exercises,  however  intense  the 
emotion  which  pervades  them.  Here  lie  the  sources 
of  character,  and  in  sweetening  these  God  makes 
the  life  a  fragrant  sacrifice.  The  spirit  was  designed 
for  sovereignty  over  soul  and  body,  and  when  God's 
fiat  restores  its  withered  powers  and  puts  within  its 
grasp  the  sceptre  of  royalty,  all  other  parts  of  man's 
nature  fall  into  due  subordination  and  attain  that 
faultless  co-adaptation  of  movement  in  which  per- 
fection consists.  The  sanctification  of  the  soul, 
which  is  the  earthen  vessel  containing  the  lower 
passions  and  appetites,  follows  that  of  the  spirit. 
When  God  possesses  us  for  His  own  uses  all 
natural  instincts  fulfil  a  Divine  purpose,  and  fulfil 
it  in  harmony  with  providential  plans.  The  forces 
of  the  nervous  life  may  lend  virility  to  a  man's 
service.  And  thus  the  body,  which  fulfils  the 
behests  of  the  spirit,  is  raised  into  a  temple,  and 
the  part  of  man's  nature  which  seems  at  the  op- 
posite pole  to  God's  Eternal  Spirit  enshrines  the 
sacred  presence,  and   is  so  made  free  from  stain. 

This  mention  of  the  body  in  the  apostle's  prayer 
implies  that  a  gracious  answer  to  the  petition 
begins  while  we  are  yet  in  the  flesh.  The  body 
cannot  be  sanctified  and  kept  from  evil  after  it 
has    passed   into   the   grave.      When    the   spirit  has 


4i6  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

fled  from  the  earthly  form  in  which  it  once  dwelt, 
neither  good  nor  evil  can  be  predicated  of  the  body. 
It  is  no  longer  an  index  of  character,  and  it  would 
be  foolish  to  describe  it  as  either  blameless  or  blame- 
worthy. To  speak  of  the  time-keeping  qualities  of 
the  clock  after  the  works  have  been  removed  and  the 
case  only  is  left  behind  is  absurd.  "  Your  body  be 
preserved  blameless."  The  resurrection  of  the  body 
and  the  Lord's  second  coming  to  judgment  are 
viewed  by  the  New  Testament  writers  as  coincident 
events,  and  if  full  sanctification  cannot  take  place 
here  and  now,  the  apostle's  prayer  that  the  body 
and  its  powers  may  be  kept  blameless  is  like  asking 
for  an  inheritance  in  a  vacuum. 

A  German,  who  was  accustomed  to  scathe  the 
weaknesses  of  the  country  to  which  he  belonged  by 
birth  rather  than  sympathy,  once  said,  "  When  the 
Cossacks  and  the  snow  had  destroyed  the  army  of 
Napoleon,  the  Germans  bestirred  themselves  and 
began  to  dream  of  liberty  and  independence."  In  our 
attitude  towards  the  noblest  possibilities  of  the 
Christian  life  are  we  not  open  to  a  like  reproach  ? 
Do  we  look  for  immediate  release  from  the  bondage 
of  sin  at  the  hands  of  our  great  Captain  and 
Deliverer?  or  do  we  not  assume  that  Nature  must 
first  weaken  the  force  of  the  temptations  which  beset 
us  before  the  yoke  of  our  spiritual  oppression  can  be 
broken  ?  When  old  age  has  tamed  the  hot  impulses  of 
youth  and  chilled  the  passion  in  our  blood,  when  the 
Cossacks  and  the  snow  have  done  their  providential 
work,  or  perhaps  not  even  till  death  releases  us  from 
the  flesh,  may  we  wake  up  and  dream  of  spiritual 
victory.  Such  views  are  an  unconscious  satire  on 
God.     Can  God  indeed  join  hands  with  wintry  Death 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANXTIFIES  417 


and  make  it  His  ally  in  consummating  our  triumph 
over  evil  ?  He  is  most  honoured  in  delivering  us 
from  sin,  and  possessing  us  for  His  own  uses,  whilst 
we  are  in  mid-life  and  our  temptations  are  at  the 
height  of  their  power.  It  is  a  misuse  of  words  to 
call  that  process  sanctification,  to  which  natural 
decay  contributes  just  as  much  as  the  consecrating 
touch  of  God,  It  is  no  grace  of  a  disembodied 
holiness  for  which  the  apostle  prays. 

This  sanctification  is  continuous  in  its  range.  It 
comprehends  not  only  that  disclosure  of  the  Divine 
presence  through  which  God  takes  possession  of 
human  nature  and  hallows  it  to  Himself,  but  a 
guardianship  of  unfailing  power.  "  Preserved  blame- 
less." Here  we  meet  the  crucial  difficulty  of  the 
subject.  The  test  of  grace  is  not  so  much  can  it 
make  us  holy  for  a  moment,  but  can  it  keep  us 
in  unspotted  integrity  till  all  temptations  are  over- 
past ?  In  a  world,  the  atmosphere  of  which 
teems  with  ever-present  incitements  to  evil,  is  it 
possible  for  this  matchless  gift  to  be  secured  against 
loss?  Many  earnest  and  godly  men  can  recall 
stages  of  their  religious  history  when  the  soul  was 
strangely  uplifted  and  it  seemed  for  a  time  that  they 
were  immune  against  insidious  temptations  to  fall 
back  to  lower  levels.  Days  and  perhaps  weeks 
were  luminous  with  the  glory  of  a  complete  and 
passionate  dedication  to  God  ;  and  those  days  still 
stand  out,  like  illuminated  peaks,  above  all  the 
memories  of  the  past.  But  men  cannot  always 
live  under  these  high  tensions,  and  the  glory  of  the 
religious  day-dawn  lost  its  virgin  splendour.  The 
clouds  gathered  and  the  life  became  once-  more 
struggling  and  depressed.     Why  did  we  fall  back  to 

28 


4i8  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

meaner  levels  and  look  upon  it  as  God's  will  that 
we  should  be  content  to  dwell  there?  Some  error, 
surely,  must  have  come  in  to  cramp  our  views  and 
to  sap  our  habits,  for  if  God  imparts  this  noble  gift 
it  cannot  be  His  will  to  withdraw  it. 

The  grace  which  sanctifies  must  be  continued  into 
living  guardianship,  because  at  the  later  stages  of 
the  believer's  history,  with  his  expanding  intelligence 
and  his  deeper  sense  of  obligation  to  God,  new  duties 
arise.  It  is  possible  for  a  man  to  keep  the  command- 
ments with  fastidious  exactness,  without  proving  all 
that  is  involved  in  the  answer  to  the  apostle's  prayer. 
The  measure  of  grace  which  sanctifies  a  half- 
developed  child  will  not,  apart  from  daily  increase, 
keep  him  holy  as  his  powers  grow  and  he  acquires  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  the  world.  The  act  which  made 
the  child  Samuel  holy  would  not,  without  an  accele- 
ration of  its  initial  force,  produce  the  same  result  in 
Paul,  with  his  trained  mind  and  his  diverse  experi- 
ences amongst  many  peoples.  Grace  must  operate 
over  a  much  larger  area  when  the  powers  have  grown 
through  discipline,  and  the  interests  of  life  have 
multiplied  a  hundredfold.  By  its  progressive  and 
cumulative  qualities  the  gift  which  sanctifies  becomes 
continuous  guardianship.  It  needed  wider  manifes- 
tations of  the  Divine  presence  to  sanctify  Solomon's 
temple  with  its  ample  spaces  and  its  rich  embellish- 
ments, and  to  separate  it  from  common  uses,  than 
to  raise  into  sacredness  the  stone  on  the  uplands 
at  Bethel,  which  Jacob  had  used  as  a  pillow.  At  the 
later  stages  of  our  life  there  is  far  more  within  us  for 
God  to  take  possession  of,  than  when  we  stand  upon 
the  threshold.  In  man,  as  he  should  be,  knowledge, 
power,  experience  and  responsibility  increase  to  the 


thp:  gift  which  sanctifies  419 

very  end  of  his  days.  Through  the  countless  mercies 
of  a  life-time  he  feels  himself  brought  unto  more 
urgent  and  comprehensive  obligations.  His  un- 
wearied study  of  the  problems  of  the  world  suggests 
new  interpretations  of  duty,  and  the  Master's  two 
commandments  ramify  into  a  thousand.  If  he  is  to 
be  kept  blameless,  the  power  which  sanctifies  must 
enlarge  the  scope  of  its  activities.  When  mature 
life  is  reached,  there  is  more  within  us  for  God  to 
appropriate  to  his  own  uses  than  could  be  found 
there  in  childhood  and  in  youth.  New  circles  of 
activity  open  before  us  and  new  motives  press  and 
constrain.  The  sanctifications  of  the  Spirit  never 
cease,  and  we  are  kept  blameless,  because  these 
Divine  forces  act  through  ever-expanding  fields. 

This  process  must  be  continuous,  because  new 
groups  of  temptations  arise  through  each  succeed- 
ing stage  of  life.  The  sudden  incitement  to  evil 
which,  sooner  or  later,  is  sure  to  come,  must  be  met 
by  unfailing  grace,  or  the  state  in  which  God 
possesses  us  for  His  own  uses  may  suffer  grievous 
interruption.  In  the  power  which  hallows  us  there 
is  a  force  which  never  falls  into  abeyance.  We  must 
not  think  of  this  mystic  grace  as  though  it  could 
withdraw  itself  after  its  first  manifestations  of  ac- 
tivity. When  red-hot  steel  is  being  rolled  into  rails 
and  armour-plating  in  the  iron  mills,  a  stream  of 
water  is  directed  upon  the  strips  of  glowing  metal 
as  they  are  shaped  for  their  future  uses.  The  jet  of 
water  causes  the  outside  scale  to  fall  away.  But  for 
this  unceasing  stream  the  scale  might  be  pressed  into 
the  body  of  the  iron  and  vitiate  its  quality.  And  is 
there  not  something  like  this  in  God's  method  of 
dealing  with  the  people  whom  He  is  moulding  to  His 


420  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

purposes  ?  Of  course  temptation  will  never  cease  in 
this  world,  but  if  compensating  grace  is  continuous 
in  its  inflow,  the  temptation  may  fall  away  before  it 
has  had  time  to  harden  itself  into  sin.  Such  gifts  of 
help  flow  down  from  His  presence  that  the  outside 
scale  has  little  chance  to  enter  into  the  habit  and 
spoil  the  character.  By  the  abiding  gift  which  en- 
ables us  to  throw  off  an  evil  imagination  before  it 
has  passed  into  disobedience,  not  only  soul  and  spirit^ 
but  even  body  may  be  kept  blameless.  The  work  of 
imprinting  the  Divine  image  upon  our  life  is  not  a 
passing  act,  like  that  of  instantaneous  photography, 
but  resembles  rather  the  method  of  the  astronomer^ 
who  gives  his  gelatine  plates  a  long  exposure  so  that 
they  may  receive  the  pictures  of  invisible  stars.  The 
power  that  comes  to  receptive  natures  is  meant  to 
stay  and  to  outlast  the  summers  that  vivify  the 
world.  Of  course  we  may  lose  this,  and  the  more 
elementary  degrees  of  grace,  by  our  own  act,  just  as 
the  man  who  has  received  a  sum  of  money  may 
squander  it,  if  he  is  so  minded,  before  the  threshold  of 
his  home  is  reached.  But  we  are  not  left  to  the  will 
of  the  adversary,  and  no  violence  can  snatch  the  gift 
from  our  hands.  The  grace  will  be  indefectible  if 
we  surrender  ourselves  at  all  times  to  the  indefectible 
guardianship. 

The  sanctity  which  God  creates  proves  its  own 
safeguard.  The  deeper  the  process  the  more  in- 
violable its  qualities.  A  true  work  of  grace  may 
yet  be  superficial,  not  because  defect  cleaves  to  the 
operations  of  the  Spirit,  but  because  the  Spirit  is  not 
admitted  into  all  the  complex  recesses  of  the  life.  Of 
course,  we  do  not  teach  that  the  highest  earthly 
sanctity  cannot  be  lost,  or  that,  once  lost,  it  cannot 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  421 

be  regained.  Both  of  these  views  have  been  held. 
But  as  a  matter  of  experience  it  will  be  found  that 
the  richer  and  more  complete  degrees  of  sanctifying 
grace  have  a  permanence  lacking  to  rudimentary 
degrees. 

In  his  book  on  Japan,  Dr.  Dresser  tells  us  of  a 
rare  bit  of  lacquer  he  had  acquired  in  the  course  of 
his  travels.  When  he  was  preparing  to  return  to 
Europe  he  entrusted  his  packing  to  a  native  car- 
penter. Feeling  some  little  concern  for  the  chief 
prize  of  his  collection,  he  went  to  see  if  the  workman 
had  packed  it  securely.  To  his  chagrin  he  found 
this  precious  curio  had  been  stuffed  with  scraps  of 
rusty  iron  and  thrown  alongside  rougher  articles 
which  might  mar  its  superb  artistry.  He  thought 
his  little  gem  was  hopelessly  spoiled,  pulled  out  the 
rude  odds  and  ends  mixed  up  with  it,  and  scolded 
the  native  with  the  emphasis  of  a  vexed  and  angry 
foreigner.  Strange  to  say  the  carpenter  persisted  in 
his  mistake,  calmly  observing  it  would  not  do  to  put 
cheap  and  inferior  lacquers  in  such  risky  places,  for 
they  would  be  ruined,  but  the  best  lacquers  could 
suffer  no  harm.  The  English  traveller  says  the 
native  workman  was  perfectly  right,  for  when  his 
little  treasure  reached  home  and  was  taken  out  of 
its  rough  resting-place  no  scar  or  scratch  was  to  be 
seen  upon  it.  It  is  a  special  characteristic  of  the 
fine  lacquers  made  in  the  feudal  courts  of  old  Japan 
that  it  is  impossible  to  scratch  or  score  them  with 
a  nail. 

And  in  spiritual  things  the  perfection  of  the  work 
is  to  some  extent  its  own  security.  The  touch  of  the 
Divine  artist,  as  He  achieves  His  masterpiece  of 
grace   within    us,   will    include    the    conditions   and 


422  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

securities  of  a  faultless  preservation.  The  skill  of 
the  supreme  Sanctifier  lifts  men  above  the  risks  of 
disfigurement  and  disaster  in  a  profane  world.  When 
marks  of  the  old  Adam  reappear  in  us,  it  is  because 
we  have  shrunk  from  the  deeper  and  more  effectual 
touches  of  God's  hand.  Fretfulness,  mortification, 
disappointment  in  the  home,  the  church,  and  the 
world  mar  our  spiritual  beauty  and  obstruct  the  grace 
which  seeks  to  hallow  us. 

This  preservation  includes  a  discovery  to  the 
spiritual  consciousness  of  the  value  of  the  gift  be- 
stowed when  God  accepts  us  for  His  own  possession. 
There  is  a  tendency  amongst  some  religious  teachers 
to  deny  that  there  can  be  any  true  knowledge  in 
those  inward  assurances  by  which  believers  are  com- 
forted. A  man  may,  perhaps,  be  one  of  God's  true 
children,  but  he  cannot  have  a  clear,  trustworthy  per- 
suasion of  the  fact.  He  may  be  sanctified,  and  yet 
of  the  grace  which  has  set  him  apart  for  God's 
uses  he  has  no  authoritative  consciousness.  But  if 
we  do  not  define  the  significance  of  the  gifts  we 
have  received,  it  is  not  at  all  likely  we  shall  retain 
possession  of  them.  It  is  one  of  God's  ways  of 
keeping  to  make  us  realise  how  incalculably  pre- 
cious are  the  blessings  with  which  He  has  en- 
riched us,  so  that  we  may  be  stirred  to  watchfulness. 
Sometimes  we  cannot  at  once  attain  the  spiritual 
power  we  seek  because  we  have  an  inadequate  sense 
of  its  worth.  We  are  so  careless  and  esteem  the  gift 
so  lightly  that  we  should  quickly  lose  it,  if  it  were 
reached  out  to  us,  and  God  has  to  keep  us  waiting 
in  meditation  and  protracted  prayer,  so  that  we  may 
learn  beforehand  the  preciousness  of  the  enduement 
we  seek  and  be  guarded  in  its  possession  for  the  rest 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  423 


of  our  clays.  There  is  more  risk  of  a  marine-store 
dealer  in  Whitechapel  having  his  shop  robbed  of 
oleographs  and  rusted  cutlery  than  of  Christie's 
Auction  Rooms  being  looted,  where  old  folios  of 
Shakespeare,  canvases  by  the  great  masters,  and  rubies 
and  diamonds  are  stored  ready  for  some  great  sale. 
The  one  man  knows  his  stock  is  comparatively  value- 
less and  does  not  take  the  trouble  to  insure  it  or  to 
engage  watchmen.  The  other  man  knows  the  value 
of  that  which  has  been  placed  there  and  has  many 
eyes  watching  over  the  treasures  and  many  hands 
ready  to  guard  them.  Some  Christians  are  un- 
watchful  because  they  do  not  know  the  high  worth 
of  the  treasure  with  which  they  have  been  put  in 
trust.  If  we  justly  esteem  the  grace  which  sanctifies 
we  shall  not  be  likely  to  forfeit  it  when  once  it  has 
come  into  our  possession.  It  is  by  an  inward  revela- 
tion of  these  high  spiritual  values  that  God  makes  us 
alert  and  brings  us  into  co-operation  with  His  own 
mighty  guardianship.  And  thus  is  it  that  we  are 
kept  blameless  till  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This  prayer  is  not  the  unwarranted  aspiration 
of  an  enthusiast.  The  apostle  is  convinced  that 
the  fulness  and  continuity  of  sanctifying  grace  are 
pledged  in  the  call  of  the  gospel  and  in  the  character 
of  God.  "  Faithful  is  He  that  calleth  you  who  also 
will  do  it."  There  are  two  principles  in  this  assured 
conviction.  We  have  been  summoned  into  a  vital 
relationship  with  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  which 
implies  as  its  very  basis  a  God-like  holiness.  Our 
call  in  the  gospel  is  unmeaning  if  it  stop  short  of  this 
issue.  And  God  will  be  true  to  the  relationship  He 
assumes  as  the  author  of  our  vocation.  The  call  is 
no   dream    from  which   there  is    to   be   a  vexatious 


424  THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES 

awakening.  It  does  not  come  to  mock  us  with  sug- 
gestions of  an  impossible  excellence.  His  faithful- 
ness surpasses  that  of  the  best  of  men  in  their  most 
sacred  and  tender  relationships.  Our  faith  is  some- 
times weakened  and  our  hooe  discouras^ed  and  re- 

J.  o 

pelled.  We  find  the  loudest  and  loftiest  professions 
of  grace  discredited  by  captiousness,  flagrant  egoism, 
mixed  morality,  the  politics  of  selfishness  and  pride  ; 
and  we  are  ready  to  turn  from  the  subject  with 
despair  and  contempt.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  how- 
ever, that  God  is  true,  and  that  it  is  His  call  which 
determines  the  standard  after  which  we  reach.  We 
have  no  right  to  membership  in  Christ's  Church 
unless  it  be  our  aim  to  reach,  here  upon  earth,  and 
now  in  this  day  of  grace,  a  blamelessness  which  will 
bear  the  searching  judgment-light.  The  apostle's 
prayer  is  in  unison  with  the  Master's  call  and  reveals 
the  law  of  the  believer's  life. 

We  are  ready  to  ask.  If  these  things  are  so,  how  is 
it  that  the  Church  of  Christ  so  often  lacks  the  note 
of  inward  and  outward  sanctity,  and  is  untrue  to  the 
great  example  it  reveres  ?  Where  are  the  people 
amongst  whom  this  inspired  prayer  is  beginning  to 
be  answered  ?  Where,  we  may  venture  to  ask,  is  the 
individual  disciple?  The  fact  is  that  men  do  not 
greatly  desire  that  the  prayer  should  be  answered — 
not,  at  least,  till  the  Lord's  coming  to  judgment  is 
somewhat  nearer.  We  play  with  our  privileges  and 
divert  ourselves  with  the  ennobling  promises  preached 
to  us.  Whilst  we  are  frittering  away  our  lives  on 
worldly  levels  and  in  half  achievements.  He  who  still 
calls  us  is  unalterably  faithful.  Who  dare  pray  this 
prayer  for  himself  with  the  expectation  that  it  will 
be  answered  ?     We  go  back  from  God's  house  with 


THE   GIFT   WHICH    SANCTIFIES  425 


just  as  much  grace  as  we  are  willing  to  carry  into  the 
world.  If  we  want  the  gift  contemplated  in  the 
apostle's  prayer,  the  prayer  may  be  answered  while 
we  yet  call.  Our  discontents  are  Divine,  for  the 
Spirit  of  God  does  not  suffer  us  to  rest  in  our  short- 
comings. "  If  in  anything  ye  are  otherwise  minded, 
even  this  shall  God  reveal  unto  you." 


XLhc  (Bvcsbam  press, 

UNWIN   BROTHERS,   LIMITKD 
WOKING  AND  LONDON. 


